System, method, program and storage medium for processing electronic mail

ABSTRACT

In an e-mail processing system with a predetermined limit on the number of destination addresses of a piece of e-mail to be sent, the present invention determines whether the number of destination addresses of a piece of e-mail being viewed to be returned to everyone exceeds the predetermined limit when directed to be returned to everyone for the e-mail being viewed, and generates a piece of return mail creation screen with predetermined addresses in the e-mail being viewed being set as destinations of the piece of return mail when the predetermined limit is determined to be exceeded and generates a piece of return mail creation screen with everyone&#39;s address for the piece of e-mail being viewed being set as a destination of the piece of return mail when the predetermined limit is determined not to be exceeded. This configuration improves viewability and operability, for example, when a user directs to create a “Return to Everyone” mail. This configuration can increase the number of users to be provided with the service.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to a process of creating a piece ofreturn mail in an electronic mail processing system under apredetermined limitation on the number of destination addresses of apiece of e-mail to be sent.

[0002] As the Internet has become widespread in recent years, electronicmail has become commonplace as a communication tool with an informationprocessor such as a personal computer or a piece of e-mail-specificterminal.

[0003] At the same time, there have been problems in such a case that auser who employs e-mail by means of an information processor placed atthe user's office cannot manipulate the e-mail away from the office.

[0004] To enable a user to employ e-mail away from the user's office orhouse, a system for forwarding a piece of e-mail to an e-mail addresswhich is available from the user's wireless mobile terminal was devisedin Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-244556. However, theabove-mentioned e-mail forwarding system has a limit on size or thenumber of characters of a piece of e-mail to be forwarded depending onthe type of destined mobile terminal (e.g., a cellular phone).Accordingly, when a piece of e-mail to be sent is too large, only thebeginning part is forwarded or the whole piece of mail is forwarded bybeing divided into many pieces.

[0005] Another WWW (World Wide Web) mail system devised employs e-mailfrom a personal computer through a WWW browser instead of through e-mailspecific application. In the WWW mail system, a user employs e-mailthrough a WWW browser.

[0006] Next, a conventional e-mail system will be described.

[0007] [Conventional E-Mail System]

[0008]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional e-mail system with apersonal computer.

[0009] Reference numeral 201 denotes client 1 which is a personalcomputer connected to an e-mail system over the Internet. Client 1includes an MUA (Mail User Agent) program for reading/writing a piece ofe-mail and an MTA (Message Transfer Agent) program for distributing apiece of e-mail.

[0010] Reference numeral 202 denotes client 2 which is a personalcomputer connected to an e-mail system over the Internet. Client 2includes an MUA program which is a mailer program for reading/writing apiece of e-mail. A user can create a piece of e-mail by controlling anMUA program on client 2 and request an MTA program running on a mailserver 206 of an e-mail system to distribute the piece of e-mail.

[0011] A user can also access an e-mail system through POP (Post OfficeProtocol) or IMAP protocol, capture and view a piece of e-mail for theuser existing in the e-mail system by controlling a mailer (MUA program)on client 2.

[0012] Client 2 also includes a WWW browser which is represented asNetscape Navigator (trademark) and the like. A user can access a WWWserver in an e-mail system and perform a user registration process andan address book process by controlling a WWW browser.

[0013] Reference numeral 203 denotes considered to be a network usingsuch communication network as a public telephone line, ISDN, andsatellite communication network.

[0014] Reference numeral 204 denotes an e-mail system which is composedof a WWW server, a mail server, a database server and a charge server.The system provides a user with an e-mail service. The servers arerespectively connected via a Local Area Network (referred to as LANhereinafter) and can communicate data with each other.

[0015] Reference numeral 205 denotes a WWW server, which includes anauthentication program, a user registration program, an address bookprogram, and an account generation program. When a user controls a WWWbrowser and accesses the WWW server, the WWW server generates variousWWW screens and sends them to the WWW browser. The user can makerespective requests for the WWW server by viewing and manipulating thesent WWW screens.

[0016] The WWW server which received the user's request over the WWWstarts each program and performs each process.

[0017] The authentication program 205 a is a program for performing userauthentication when a user accesses a WWW server by controlling a WWWbrowser. The user views a sent authentication screen and enters a userID and a password which are required for authentication. Then theauthentication program performs authentication by referring to userinformation data in a user information database. If the authenticationfails, the authentication program displays an authentication errorscreen. If the authentication succeeds, the authentication programgenerates an authentication ID and stores the authentication ID inassociation with the user ID into an authentication database. At thismoment, a timer for the authentication ID is set to a specific timeperiod. When a predetermined time period set for this authentication IDtimer elapses, the stored authentication ID is deleted from thedatabase.

[0018] When the user accesses the WWW server again by controlling a WWWbrowser after having an authentication ID generated, the authenticationprogram checks whether the generated authentication ID exists in DB. Ifthe authentication ID exists in the DB, the previous authentication isdetermined to be valid and the access is permitted without performingany user authentication. If the authentication ID does not exist in theDB, the authentication ID is determined to be invalid and anauthentication screen for retrying user authentication is displayed.

[0019] The user registration program 205 b is a program to generate auser information registration screen for a user to set the start or endof the employment of the e-mail system or to register user informationwhen the user accesses a URL for user registration of the WWW server bycontrolling a WWW browser.

[0020] When the user views an information registration screen anddirects to start employing the e-mail system, the user registrationprogram issues and stores a user ID, a password and an e-mail addressfor employing the e-mail service into a user information database. Thenthe user registration program starts the account generation program.

[0021] When the user views an information registration screen anddirects to finish employing the e-mail system, the user registrationprogram starts the account generation program, while deleting a user ID,a password and an e-mail address which has been used by the user from auser information database.

[0022] In addition, the user registration program resets anauthentication ID timer each time the user controls the system.

[0023] The address book program 205 c is a program to generate anaddress book screen for a user to edit or view an address book when theuser accesses a URL for address book of the WWW server by controlling aWWW browser.

[0024] The address book program stores data on a specific person's name,a telephone number and an e-mail address designated by the user inassociation with each other into an address book database. The addressbook data is stored in association with each other for each user ID. Themaximum number of address book data pieces allowed for each user toregister can be set to a predetermined number.

[0025] In addition, the address book program resets an authentication IDtimer each time the user controls the system.

[0026] The account generation program 205 d is a program for causing amail server to generate an e-mail account for a user when the useraccesses a URL for user registration of a WWW server by controlling aWWW browser and directs to start employing the e-mail system. Theaccount generation program is also used for deleting the user's e-mailaccount in the mail server when the user accesses a URL for userregistration of a WWW server by controlling a WWW browser and directs tofinish employing the e-mail system.

[0027] When generation of an e-mail account completes, the accountgeneration program starts a charge program running on a charge server.

[0028] The mail server 206 is composed of an MTA program and a POP/IMAPprogram.

[0029] The MTA program 206 a is a program for performing management of amail account for a user who employs the e-mail system and for processinga piece of e-mail for a user who employs the e-mail system. The MTAprogram receives a piece of e-mail distributed over a communicationnetwork for a user who employs the e-mail system and stores the piece ofe-mail into a data storage area on a mail server, which is referred toas “mail spool”. At this moment, the MTA program sorts and stores thereceived piece of e-mail for each user (for each e-mail address).

[0030] The maximum capacity for a mail storage area of a mail spool isset for each user. When an amount of storage for a user reaches itsmaximum capacity, the MTA program stops storing a piece of new e-mailfor the user and returns the piece of e-mail to its source. 206 b is aPOP/IMAP program. When a user accesses the e-mail system through aprotocol such as POP (Post Office Protocol) or IMAP (Internet MessageAccesses Protocol) by controlling the MUA program, a POP/IMAP programpasses a piece of mail stored in a mail spool of a mail server to MUA.

[0031] When a user performs a sending process of a piece of e-mail bycontrolling an MUA program, the MUA program requests the MTA program todistribute the piece of e-mail. The MTA program which received therequest distributes the piece of e-mail created by the user through SMTP(simple mail transfer protocol).

[0032] A database server 207 is composed of a user information database,an address book database and an authentication database.

[0033] The user information database 207 a stores a user ID, a password,and an e-mail address of a user who employs the e-mail system.

[0034] The address book database 207 b stores an address book for eachuser who employs the e-mail system. The address book stores data such asa specific person's name, a telephone number and an e-mail address,which are designated for registration.

[0035] The authentication database 207 c stores an authentication IDgenerated by an authentication program.

[0036] The charge server 208 is composed of a charge program and acharge database.

[0037] When a user directs to start employing the e-mail system with auser registration program, the charge program 208 a stores a set dateand time as a date and time for service to start in a charge DB. Thecharge program 208 a is also a program for storing a set date and timeas a date and time for service to end in a charge database when a userdirects to finish employing the e-mail system with a user registrationprogram. With the charge program, the charge server calculates thenumber of days from the starting date and time to the ending date andtime for each user who employs the e-mail system and calculates a chargeof the e-mail system.

[0038] The charge database 208 b stores the dates and times to start andend the service for a user who employs the e-mail system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0039] The present invention enables one to employ a WWW mail systemfrom a browser implemented in a mobile terminal such as a cellularphone. Most mailing functions incorporated in cellular phones asstandard have strict restrictions on the number of characters for apiece of e-mail owing to VRAM in the cellular phone. The presentembodiment eliminates such severe restrictions on the number ofcharacters and the like by employing a WWW browser to implement ane-mail function thereby improving the system usability. However, inemploying the WWW mail system from a mobile terminal such as a cellularphone, there was a problem with a mobile terminal in that such terminalis unsuitable for displaying a very large amount of information at atime because of its small display screen. In particular, in the casethat too many addresses are set as destinations of a return mail, a useris annoyed in checking which addresses are set.

[0040] To solve the above-mentioned problem, an e-mail processing systemaccording to the present invention is an e-mail processing system with apredetermined limit on the number of destination addresses of a piece ofe-mail to be sent, having a determination means for determining whetherthe number of destination addresses of a piece of e-mail being viewed tobe returned to everyone exceeds the predetermined limit when directed toreturn to everyone for the piece of e-mail being viewed, and ageneration means for generating a piece of return mail creation screenwith predetermined addresses in the piece of e-mail being viewed beingset as destinations of the piece of return mail when the predeterminedlimit is determined to be exceeded and for generating a piece of returnmail creation screen with everyone's address for the piece of e-mailbeing viewed being set as destinations of the piece of return mail whenthe predetermined limit is determined not to be exceeded.

[0041] To solve the above-mentioned problem, an e-mail processing methodaccording to the present invention is a processing method for processinga piece of e-mail in an e-mail system with a predetermined limit on thenumber of destination addresses of a piece of e-mail to be sent, havingthe steps of: determining whether the number of destination addresses ofa piece of e-mail being viewed to be returned to everyone exceeds thepredetermined limit when directed to return to everyone for the piece ofe-mail being viewed, and generating a piece of return mail creationscreen with predetermined addresses in the piece of e-mail being viewedbeing set as destinations of the piece of return mail when thepredetermined limit is determined to be exceeded and of generating apiece of return mail creation screen with everyone's address of thepiece of e-mail being viewed being set as destinations of the piece ofreturn mail when the predetermined limit is determined not to beexceeded.

[0042] Other features and advantages of the patent invention will beapparent from the following description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate thesame or similar parts throughout the figure thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0043] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in andconstitute a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of theinvention and, together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples of the invention.

[0044]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an e-mail system showing the presentembodiment;

[0045]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional e-mail system;

[0046]FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flow of PC user registrationprocess;

[0047]FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flow of a cell-phone userregistration process;

[0048]FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flow of a cell-phone userregistration process;

[0049]FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a cell-phone user informationregistration screen;

[0050]FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a cell-phone user informationdata storage area;

[0051]FIG. 8 is a flow chart of an e-mail incoming process;

[0052]FIG. 9 is a flow chart of an e-mail incoming process;

[0053]FIG. 10 is a display screen to be shown on a cellular phone;

[0054]FIG. 11 is a display screen to be shown on a cellular phone;

[0055]FIG. 12 is a display screen to be shown on a cellular phone;

[0056]FIG. 13 is a display screen to be shown on a cellular phone;

[0057]FIG. 14 is a display screen to be shown on a cellular phone;

[0058]FIG. 15 is a display screen to be shown on a cellular phone;

[0059]FIG. 16 is a display screen to be shown on a cellular phone;

[0060]FIG. 17 is a display screen to be shown on a cellular phone;

[0061]FIG. 18 is a display screen to be shown on a cellular phone;

[0062]FIG. 19 is a display screen to be shown on a cellular phone; and

[0063]FIG. 20 is a flow chart showing a mail creation process forreturning to everyone.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0064] (First Embodiment)

[0065] An e-mail system according to a first embodiment of the presentinvention will now be described in detail.

[0066] [E-mail System with a Personal Computer and a Cellular Phone]

[0067]FIG. 1 is a diagram of a system configuration showing anembodiment of an e-mail system with a personal computer and a cellularphone according to the invention.

[0068] An e-mail system with a personal computer and a cellular phoneaccording to the present invention enables one to employ an e-mailsystem from a cellular phone (referred to as “a cellular phone service”hereinafter) as well as from a personal computer.

[0069] In FIG. 1, 101 is client 1, which is a personal computerconnected to the e-mail system over the Internet. Client 1 includes anMUA (Mail User Agent) program for reading/writing a piece of e-mail andan MTA (Message Transfer Agent) program for distributing a piece ofe-mail.

[0070]102 is client 2 a, which is a personal computer (PC) connected tothe e-mail system over the Internet. Client 2 includes an MUA programwhich is a mailer program for reading/writing a piece of e-mail. A usercan control an MUA program on client 2 a to create a piece of e-mail andrequest an MTA program running on a mail server 206 of the e-mail systemto distribute the piece of e-mail.

[0071]103 is client 2 b, which is a cellular phone including a functionprovided by a cellular phone company for sending and receiving a pieceof e-mail specialized for the cellular phone, a WWW browser function foraccessing a WWW page, and a telephone function. This cellular phoneallows a user to employ e-mail via a mail server of the cellular phonecompany by using a cellular phone-specific e-mail address supplied fromthe company. A piece of mail sent to such a cellular phone-specifice-mail address is distributed to a user's cellular phone to allow theuser to view the mail. In the function for sending and receiving a pieceof e-mail specialized for the cellular phone, the number of characterswhich can be sent and received is considered to be limited to around200.

[0072]104 is considered to be a network using a communication networksuch as a public telephone line, ISDN, and a satellite communicationnetwork (it is considered to be a public line network including awireless network in the present embodiment).

[0073]105 is an e-mail system which is composed of a WWW server, a mailserver, a cell-phone WWW server, a cell-phone mail server, a databaseserver and a charge server, providing a user with an e-mail service. Theservers are respectively connected via a LAN to communicate data witheach other.

[0074]106 is the WWW server, which includes an authentication program, auser registration program, an address book program, and an accountgeneration program. When a user accesses the WWW server by controlling aWWW browser, the WWW server generates and sends various WWW screens tothe WWW browser. The user can make various requests for the WWW serverby viewing and manipulating each of the WWW screens sent to the user.

[0075]106 a is the authentication program, which is a program forperforming user authentication when a user accesses a WWW server bycontrolling a WWW browser. 106 a includes a function for startingvarious programs by accessing a cell-phone WWW server. When a user viewsa sent authentication screen and enters a user ID and a passwordrequired for authentication, the authentication program performsauthentication by referring to user information data in a userinformation database. If the authentication fails, the authenticationprogram displays an authentication error screen. If the authenticationsucceeds, the authentication program generates an authentication ID andstores the authentication ID in association with the user ID in anauthentication database. At this moment, a timer for the authenticationID is set to a specific time period. When a predetermined time periodset for this authentication ID timer elapses, the stored authenticationID is deleted from the database.

[0076] When the user accesses again a WWW server by controlling a WWWbrowser after having the authentication ID generated, the authenticationprogram checks whether the generated authentication ID exists in DB. Ifthe authentication ID exists in DB, the previous authentication isdetermined to be valid and the access is permitted without performinguser authentication. If the authentication ID does not exist in DB, theauthentication ID is determined to be invalid and an authenticationscreen for retrying user authentication is displayed.

[0077]106 b is the user registration program, which is a program togenerate a user information registration screen for a user to performsetting the start or end of employment of an e-mail system andregistration of user information when the user accesses a URL for userregistration of a WWW server by controlling a WWW browser. When a userviews the information registration screen and directs to start employingthe e-mail system, the user registration program 106 b issues a user ID,a password and an e-mail address for employing the e-mail service andstores them into a user information database. Then the user registrationprogram starts the account generation program. When a user views theinformation registration screen and directs to finish employing thee-mail system, the user registration program starts the accountgeneration program, while deleting a user ID, a password and an e-mailaddress which has been used by the user from the user informationdatabase.

[0078] The user registration program 106 b includes a function forenabling a user to set the start or end of employment of the cellularphone service; a function for starting a cell-phone account generationprogram when a user sets the start of employment of the cellular phoneservice; and a function for informing a user of a URL for accessing acell-phone user registration program when the user sets the start ofemployment of the cellular phone service.

[0079] The user registration program resets an authentication ID timereach time the user controls the system.

[0080]106 c is the address book program, which is a program to generatean address book screen for a user to perform editing and viewing of anaddress book when the user accesses a URL for address book of a WWWserver by controlling a WWW browser.

[0081] The address book program stores data on specific person's name,telephone number and e-mail address designated by the user inassociation with each other into an address book database. The addressbook data is stored with associated for each user ID, and the maximumnumber of address book data pieces which is allowed for one user toregister is set to a predetermined number.

[0082] The address book program resets an authentication ID timer eachtime the user controls the system.

[0083]106 d is the account generation program, which is a program forcausing a mail server to generate an e-mail account for a user when theuser accesses a URL for user registration of a WWW server by controllinga WWW browser of a PC and directs to start employing the e-mail system.The account generation program is also used for deleting a user's e-mailaccount in the mail server when the user accesses a URL for userregistration of a WWW server by controlling a WWW browser and directs tofinish employing the e-mail system.

[0084] When generation of an e-mail account ends, the account generationprogram starts the charge program running on the charge server.

[0085]107 is a mail server, which is composed of an MTA program and aPOP/IMAP program.

[0086]107 a is an MTA program, which is a program for performingmanagement of a mail account for a user who employs an e-mail system anda process of a piece of e-mail for a user who employs an e-mail system.The MTA program receives a piece of e-mail for a user who employs ane-mail system which is distributed through a communication network andstores the piece of e-mail into a data storage area on a mail serverwhich is referred to as “mail spool”. At this moment, the MTA programsorts and stores the received piece of e-mail for each user (for eache-mail address).

[0087] The maximum capacity for a mail storage area of a mail spool isset for each user. When an amount of storage for a user reaches itsmaximum capacity, the MTA program stops storing a new e-mail for theuser and returns the piece of e-mail to its source.

[0088] The MTA program 107 a includes a function to forward a piece ofe-mail for a user to a cell-phone e-mail address of the user in acell-phone mail server 108 when the user sets to use a cell-phoneservice. The cell-phone e-mail address for a user is generated by acell-phone account generation program.

[0089]107 b is a POP or IMAP program. When a user accesses the e-mailsystem through a protocol such as POP (Post Office Protocol) or IMAP(Internet Message Accesses Protocol) by controlling an MUA program, aPOP/IMAP program passes a piece of mail stored in a mail spool of a mailserver to the MUA.

[0090] When the user controls the MUA program and performs a sendingprocess of a piece of e-mail, the MUA program requests an MTA program ofthe e-mail system to distribute a piece of e-mail. The MTA program whichreceived the distribution request distributes the piece of e-mailcreated by the user through SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol).

[0091]108 is a cell-phone mail server, which is composed of a cell-phoneMTA program, a cell-phone POP, and an IMAP program.

[0092]108 a is a cell-phone MTA program, which performs both managementof a user's mail account which is set to use a cell-phone service andprocessing of a piece of e-mail.

[0093] The cell-phone MTA program receives a piece of e-mail for a user,which is forwarded by an MTA program of a mail server 107 and stores thepiece of e-mail into a mail storage area on a mail server which isreferred to as a “mail spool”.

[0094] At this moment, the cell-phone MTA program sorts and stores thereceived piece of e-mail for each user (for each cell-phone e-mailaddress). The cell-phone MTA program keeps storing a new e-mail for auser until the entire mail storage area of a mail spool becomes short.The cell-phone MTA program stops storing a new e-mail for a user andreturns the piece of e-mail to its source when the entire mail storagearea of a mail spool becomes short.

[0095] The cell-phone MTA program distributes a piece of e-mail to adesignated mail address through SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol)when it is requested to distribute a piece of e-mail by a cell-phonemail program.

[0096]108 b is a cell-phone POP/IMAP program. When a cell-phone mailprogram 109 b accesses through a POP or IMAP protocol, the cell-phonePOP/IMAP program passes a piece of mail stored in a mail spool of acell-phone server.

[0097]109 is a cell-phone WWW server, which includes a cell-phone userregistration program, a cell-phone mail program, a cell-phone addressbook program, and a cell-phone account generation program.

[0098] When a user accesses respective URLs for cell-phone service bycontrolling a WWW browser of a cellular phone, authentication isperformed by an authentication program of a WWW server. Then, variousWWW screens are generated in a cell-phone WWW server and sent to the WWWbrowser of the cellular phone. When a user controls a WWW browser of aPC and performs cell-phone user registration, a URL for a cell-phoneuser registration program of a cell-phone WWW server is called via a WWWserver and a cell-phone user registration is performed on a WWW screensent from the cell-phone WWW server.

[0099] A user can make various requests for a cell-phone WWW server byviewing and manipulating a WWW screen, which is sent to a cell-phone WWWbrowser or PC's WWW browser.

[0100] The cell-phone WWW server which received a user's request startsrespective programs and performs processing. Various URLs of acell-phone WWW server include a URL for cell-phone user registrationprogram, a URL for cell-phone mail program, a URL for cell-phone addressbook program and the like. When such a URL is accessed, authenticationis performed by an authentication program of the WWW server at first. Ifthe authentication is determined to succeed, the access to thecell-phone WWW server will be allowed.

[0101]109 a is the cell-phone user registration program, which is aprogram to be called by the authentication program 106 a, ifauthentication of a WWW server succeeds, when a user accesses a URL forcell-phone user registration program by controlling a WWW browser.

[0102] The cell-phone user registration program 109 a generates acell-phone user information registration screen and makes registrationof user information concerning a cell-phone service performed.

[0103] In other words, when a user views a cell-phone user informationregistration screen, enters respective pieces of user information anddirects to register the information, the cell-phone user registrationprogram stores respective pieces of information into a user informationdatabase and then informs the user of a URL for cell-phone mail programand a URL for cell-phone address book program.

[0104] The cell-phone registration program resets an authentication IDtimer each time the user controls the system.

[0105]109 b is the cell-phone mail program, which is a program to becalled by an authentication program 106 a, if authentication of a WWWserver succeeds, when a user accesses a URL for cell-phone mail programby controlling a cell-phone WWW browser of a cellular phone 103 (client2 b).

[0106] The cell-phone mail program 109 b generates various screens forcellular phone to process a piece of e-mail and send them to thecell-phone WWW browser. The user can control a cell-phone WWW browser ofthe cellular phone to view those various screens and direct respectiveprocessing of the piece of e-mail.

[0107] The cell-phone mail program 109 b performs respective processingof the piece of e-mail according to the direction sent by the user.

[0108] The cell-phone mail program resets an authentication ID timereach time the user controls the system.

[0109]109 c is the address book program, which is a program to be calledby the authentication program 106 a, if authentication of a WWW serversucceeds, when a user accesses a URL for cell-phone address book programby controlling a cell-phone WWW browser of a cellular phone 103 (client2 b).

[0110] The cell-phone address book program generates an address bookscreen for cellular phone to allow a user to edit and view an addressbook.

[0111] The cell-phone address book program provides a common addressbook which can be shared by a plurality of users and a personal addressbook which is only available for one user.

[0112] The cell-phone address book program associates three pieces ofdata on a specific person's name, telephone number and e-mail addressdesignated by the user and store the data into either the common addressbook data storage area or the personal address book data storage area ofan address book database.

[0113] The address book data is stored in association with each user.The maximum number of address book data pieces which is allowed for oneuser to register is set to a predetermined number.

[0114] The cell-phone address book program resets an authentication IDtimer each time the user controls the system.

[0115]109 d is the cell-phone account generation program, which is aprogram to be called by a user registration program 106 b when a useraccesses a URL for user registration of a WWW server by controlling aWWW browser and sets the start of employing of a cellular phone service.

[0116] The cell-phone account generation program generates an e-mailaccount for cellular phone service of a user who starts employing acellular phone service in the cell-phone mail server 108.

[0117] The cell phone account generation program deletes a user's e-mailaccount for cellular phone service of a cell-phone mail server when theuser accesses a URL for user registration of a WWW server by controllinga WWW browser and sets to finish employing a cellular phone service.

[0118] When generation of the e-mail account ends, the cell-phoneaccount generation program starts a charge program running on the chargeserver.

[0119]110 is the database server, which is composed of a userinformation database, an address book database, and an authenticationdatabase.

[0120]110 a is the user information database, which stores a user ID, apassword, and an e-mail address for a user who employs the e-mail systemas well as various pieces of user information for cellular phoneservice.

[0121]110 b is the address book database, which includes a commonaddress book storage area which can be shared by a plurality of usersand a personal address book which can be personally used by a user.

[0122]110 c is the authentication database, which stores anauthentication ID generated by the authentication program.

[0123]111 is the charge server, which is composed of a charge programand a charge database.

[0124]111 a is the charge program, which stores a set date and time as adate and time for service to start into the charge DB when a userdirects to start employing the e-mail system by using the userregistration program. The charge program is also a program for storing aset date and time as a date and time for service to end into the chargedatabase when a user directs to finish employing the e-mail system byusing the user registration program. With the charge program, the chargeserver calculates the number of days from the start date and time to theend date and time of the service for each user who employs an e-mailsystem and calculates a charge of the e-mail system.

[0125] The charge program 111 a stores a set date and time as a date andtime for service to start into the charge DB when a user sets the startof employing a cellular phone service by using the user registrationprogram. The charge program also stores a date and time of ending acellular phone service into the charge database when a user sets the endof employing a cellular phone service by using a user registrationprogram.

[0126]111 b is the charge database, which stores dates and times theservice started and ended for a user who employs an e-mail system aswell as dates and times the service started and ended for a user whoemploys a cellular phone service.

[0127] Each server included in the embodiment is considered to implementthe present invention by reading out a program code from a storagemedium which stores each of the above-mentioned programs and performingthe program code in a computer (CPU). The program may be storedpreviously on a storage medium of each server or may be stored on astorage medium within each server via a removable medium or a network.Each server may be composed of a single unit or may be composed of aplurality of devices.

[0128] <Description of Processes>

[0129] Processes of the e-mail system with a personal computer (PC) anda cellular phone will now be described.

[0130] [Description of Registration Process of a User who uses PC]

[0131] First, a flow of a user registration process in creating a mailaddress which can be used by WWW browser of a PC will now be describedwith reference to FIG. 3.

[0132] In FIG. 3, 301 is a process in a WWW browser running on a PC(client 2 a), 302 is a process by authentication program running on aWWW server 106, 303 is a process by user registration program running ona WWW server 106, and 304 is a process by account generation programrunning on a WWW server 106.

[0133] For a specific user (referred to as “User 2” hereinafter) toemploy the e-mail system, a user registration process must be performedat first.

[0134] At step S301, User 2 accesses the WWW server 106 of the e-mailsystem by controlling a WWW browser running on the client 2 a. Then, atstep S302, a user authentication screen is generated and sent to the WWWbrowser by the authentication program 106 a of the WWW server.

[0135] At step S303, User 2 views the authentication screen then entersa user ID and a password required for authentication. Then, at stepS304, the authentication program performs authentication by referring touser information data within a user information database. If theauthentication succeeds, the authentication program generates anauthentication ID, stores the authentication ID in association with theuser ID into the authentication database, and sets an authentication IDtimer to a specific time period. Then the authentication program startsthe user registration program, which generates a user informationregistration page and sends the page to the WWW browser at step S305.

[0136] At step S306, User 2 views the user registration page andperforms setting of the start of employment of the e-mail system andregistration of user information.

[0137] At step S307, the user registration program obtains informationentered by the user and stores a user ID, a password, and an e-mailaddress of the user who employs the e-mail service into the userinformation database. Then, at step S308, the user registration programstarts an account generation program.

[0138] At step S309, the account generation program generates a user'se-mail account in a mail server. Then, at step S310, the accountgeneration program starts a charge program running on a charge server.At this moment, the charge program stores the set date and time into acharge DB as a date and time of starting the service.

[0139] The process continues to step S312, where the user registrationprogram generates an account generation and user registration end screenand sends the screen to the WWW browser.

[0140] At step S313, User 2 views and checks the account generation anduser registration end screen.

[0141] A user can use a WWW browser of a PC to send and receive a pieceof e-mail by using an e-mail address registered in the above-mentionedmanner. The embodiment also enables a user to view a piece of mailreceived at the e-mail address on a cellular phone or to generate andsend a piece of e-mail from a cellular phone. Processes to make e-mailavailable from a cellular phone will be described below.

[0142] [Description of Cell-phone User Registering Processes]

[0143] A flow of a cell-phone user registration process to make e-mailavailable by cell-phone WWW browser of a cellular phone will bedescribed with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

[0144] In FIG. 4, 401 is a WWW browser running on the PC 102 (client 2a) shown in FIG. 1, 402 is an authentication program running on the WWWserver 106 shown in FIG. 1, 403 is a user registration program runningon the WWW server 106 shown in FIG. 1, and 404 is a cell-phone accountgeneration program running on the cell-phone WWW server 109 shown inFIG. 1.

[0145] In FIG. 5, 501 is a WWW browser running on the PC 102 (client 2a) shown in FIG. 1, 502 is an authentication program running on the WWWserver 106 shown in FIG. 1, and 503 is a cell-phone user registrationprogram running on the cell-phone WWW server 109 shown in FIG. 1.

[0146] For a specific user (referred to as “User 2” hereinafter) toemploy a cell-phone service, a cell-phone user registration process mustbe performed at first.

[0147] At step S401, User 2 accesses the WWW server 106 of the e-mailsystem by controlling a WWW browser running on the client 2 a shown inFIG. 1. Then, at step S402, an authentication program 106 a of a WWWserver generates a user authentication screen and sends the screen tothe WWW browser.

[0148] At step S403, User 2 views the authentication screen and enters auser ID and a password required for authentication. Then, at step S404,the authentication program performs authentication by referring to userinformation data within a user information database. If theauthentication succeeds, the authentication program generates anauthentication ID, stores the authentication ID in association with theuser ID into an authentication database, and sets an authentication IDtimer to the specific time period. Then the authentication programstarts the user registration program.

[0149] At step S405, the user registration program generates a userinformation registration page and sends the page to the WWW browser.

[0150] At step S406, User 2 views the user registration page and thenenters a setting of starting the employment of the cellular phoneservice. At step S407, the user registration program starts a cell-phoneaccount generation program.

[0151] At step S408, the cell-phone account generation program generatesa user account for User 2 in a cell-phone mail server. At this moment,User 2's e-mail address for cellular phone service is generated. At stepS409, the cell-phone account generation program informs the user of aURL for cell-phone user registration program. More specifically, a pieceof e-mail containing a URL for cell-phone user registration program issent to the user's e-mail address for PC.

[0152] At S410, the cell-phone account generation program starts acharge program running on a charge server. At this moment, the chargeprogram stores a date and time of starting the cellular phone serviceinto a charge DB.

[0153] The process continues to step S411, where the user registrationprogram generates a cell-phone user registration end screen containingthe account and sends the screen to a WWW browser of the PC.

[0154] At step S412, User 2 views and checks the user registration endscreen.

[0155] User 2 then uses a WWW browser of the PC (client 2 a) and views apiece of e-mail containing a URL for cell-phone user registrationprogram which is received at the e-mail address for PC.

[0156] At step S501, User 2 accesses a WWW server of the e-mail systemby controlling a WWW browser running on the client 2 a shown in FIG. 1.At step S502, the authentication program 106 a of the WWW servergenerates a user authentication screen and sends the screen to the WWWbrowser.

[0157] At step S503, User 2 views the authentication screen and thenenters a user ID and a password required for authentication. Then, atstep S504, the authentication program performs authentication byreferring to user information data in a user information database. Ifthe authentication succeeds, the authentication program generates anauthentication ID, stores the authentication ID in association with theuser ID into the authentication database, and sets an authentication IDtimer to a specific time period. Then the authentication program startsthe cell-phone user registration program.

[0158] At step S505, the user registration program generates acell-phone user information registration page as shown in FIG. 6 andsends the page to the WWW browser of the PC.

[0159] The cell-phone user information registration page is providedwith such input areas for registering 13 entries of cell-phone userinformation as follows.

[0160] (1) Cellular phone number: An area for a user to enter the user'scellular phone number in single-byte number.

[0161] (2) Cell-phone mail address: An area for a user to enter a mailaddress given by a cellular phone company.

[0162] (3) Area for entering a cell-phone mail address for confirmation.

[0163] (4) Incoming notice setting: An area for a user to perform asetting about incoming notice. This area is composed of an area forsetting whether an incoming notice should be sent to the mail addressgiven by the cellular phone company which is set in (2) and an area forsetting an interval between incoming notices by time period or by thenumber of recently received pieces of mail.

[0164] (5) Bcc setting: An area for a user to designate whether asending mail should be automatically Bcc'ed to the user.

[0165] (6) Filter setting (sender): An area for a user to perform asetting about filtering based on a sender's name of a received mail.This area is composed of an area for setting whether senders should befiltered and an area for setting a character string (sender) for senderfiltering.

[0166] (7) Filter setting (title of a piece of mail): An area for a userto perform a setting about filtering based on a title of a receivedmail. This area is composed of an area for setting whether titlefiltering should be done and an area for setting a character string fortitle filtering.

[0167] (8) Filter setting (the number of days): An area for a user toperform a setting about filtering by how old a received mail is by thenumber of days. This area is composed of an area for setting whetherfiltering by the number of days should be done and an area for setting acharacter string (the number of days) for filtering by the number ofdays.

[0168] (9) Signature setting: An area for a user to perform a settingabout a signature. This area is composed of an area for setting whethera signature should be affixed to a sending mail and an area for settinga character string for the signature.

[0169] (10) Standard sentence setting: An area for a user to enter astandard sentence. Up to ten standard sentences can be set.

[0170] (11) “Update Basic Information” button: A button for updatinginformation after a user has entered and set all required entries.

[0171] At step S506, User 2 views the cell-phone user informationregistration page, enters the above-mentioned respective pieces ofcell-phone user information and then selects “Update Basic Information”button. When the designation of “Update Basic Information” button by theuser is detected, the entered respective pieces of cell-phone userinformation are sent to the cell-phone user registration program.

[0172] At step S507, the cell-phone user registration program obtainsthe respective pieces of cell-phone user information and stores theinformation into a cell-phone user information storage area of a userinformation database.

[0173]FIG. 7 is a diagram representing details of a cell-phone userinformation storage area. As shown in FIG. 7, the cell-phone userinformation storage area is provided with 30 fields for storingrespective pieces of cell-phone user information for each user.

[0174] Fields from 21 to 30 are areas for storing information of tenkinds of standard sentences. Each area for storing standard sentenceinformation is composed of a standard sentence character string area forstoring a standard sentence character string, a frequency area forstoring a frequency of standard sentence usage, and a latest used dateand time area for storing the latest used date and time for a standardsentence.

[0175] Then at step S508, the cell-phone user registration programinforms the user of a URL for cell-phone mail program and a URL forcell-phone address book program. More specifically, the cell-phone userregistration program sends a piece of e-mail containing a URL forcell-phone mail program and a URL for cell-phone address book program tothe e-mail address given by a cellular phone company.

[0176] The URL for cell-phone mail program and a URL for cell-phoneaddress book program include ID information for identifying the user. Byclicking the URL contained in the e-mail, the user is enabled to employe-mail for the user's cellular phone service as a cell-phone WWW browserof a cellular phone is automatically started, while the user is alsoenabled to view the piece of e-mail sent to the mail address for PC byusing a cellular phone as the piece of e-mail sent to a mail address forPC is forwarded to the e-mail address for the cellular phone service.

[0177] Then at S509, the cell-phone user registration program generatesa cell-phone user information registration end screen and sends thescreen to the WWW browser. At step S510, User 2 views and checks thecell-phone user information registration end screen.

[0178] [Description of E-mail Incoming Process]

[0179] A flow of process where User 1 sends a piece of mail to an e-mailaddress for PC of User 2 and then the mail is saved in a mail storagearea for User 2 in a mail spool of a cell-phone mail server will now bedescribed.

[0180] First, User 1 controls the MUA program running on the client 1(101) shown in FIG. 1, generates and sends a piece of e-mail to adestination of e-mail address for PC of User 2. Then the MTA program ofthe client 1 distributes the sent mail to a mail server 107 having amail address of User 2 through SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol).

[0181] When the MTA program of the mail server 107 receives the piece ofe-mail, it saves the mail in a mail storage area for User 2 in a mailspool and forwards the piece of e-mail to an e-mail address for cellularphone service of User 2, i.e. to the cell-phone mail server 108 shown inFIG. 1.

[0182] The cell-phone MTA program in the cell-phone mail server receivesthe forwarded e-mail and saves the piece of e-mail in a mail storagearea for User 2 in a mail spool. Then the cell-phone MTA program callsan e-mail incoming process of a cell-phone mail program 109 b running ona cell-phone WWW server 109 and finishes the process.

[0183] A flow of an e-mail incoming process of a cell-phone mail programwill now be described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9.

[0184] When called by the cell-phone MTA program of the cell-phone mailserver, at step S801, the e-mail incoming process checks to see if anattached file accompanies the piece of e-mail which have come and issaved. The attached file is considered to be an image, a text, adocument file and the like. If the piece of e-mail is determined to beaccompanied by an attached file, process proceeds to step S802 anddeletes the attached file of the piece of e-mail which is stored. Theprocess adds attached file delete information to indicate that the pieceof e-mail was accompanied by an attached file into e-mail headerinformation, and then overwrites mail data. The process continues tostep S803.

[0185] If the piece of e-mail is determined not to be accompanied by anattached file at step S801, the process continues to step S803.

[0186] At step S803, the total number of pieces of mail stored in themail storage area for User 2 in the mail spool of the cell-phone mailserver 108 shown in FIG. 1 is checked to see if it exceeds the maximumnumber of pieces of mail to be stored for User 2. A system administratorcan set the maximum number of pieces of mail to be stored at his/her owndiscretion.

[0187] If the maximum number of pieces of mail to be stored is exceeded,the process continues to step S804 and examines a date of a piece ofmail sent contained in header information on each mail stored in a mailstorage area for User 2 and detects the mail with the oldest date ofsending among them. The process forwards the detected oldest mail to ane-mail address given by a cellular phone company of User 2 and thendeletes the mail from a mail storage area. A mail server of a cellularphone company limits the number of characters which can be received andsent to around 200, so that the part of the forwarded mail after the200th character from the beginning is automatically deleted. Then theprocess returns to step S803.

[0188] If the maximum number of pieces of mail to be stored is notexceeded at step S803, the process continues to step S805.

[0189] At step S805, a sum of mail size stored in the mail storage areafor User 2 in the mail spool of the cell-phone mail server 108 shown inFIG. 1 is checked to see if it exceeds the virtual maximum storagecapacity for User 2. A system administrator can set the virtual maximumstorage capacity at his/her own discretion.

[0190] If the virtual maximum storage capacity is determined to beexceeded, the process continues to step S806 and examines a date of apiece of mail sent contained in header information on each mail storedin the mail storage area for User 2 and detects the mail with the oldestdate of being sent among them. The process transfers the detected mailto an e-mail address given by a cellular phone company of User 2 andthen deletes the mail from the mail storage area. The process returns tostep S805.

[0191] If the virtual maximum storage capacity is determined not to beexceeded at step S805, the process continues to step S807.

[0192] At step S807, the total number of pieces of mail stored in themail storage area for User 2 in the mail spool of the cell-phone mailserver 108 shown in FIG. 1 is checked to see if it exceeds 80% of themaximum number of pieces of mail to be stored for User 2. If 80% of themaximum number of mail to be stored is determined to be exceeded, theprocess continues to step S809. Otherwise, the process continues to stepS808.

[0193] At step S808, a sum of mail size stored in the mail storage areafor User 2 in the mail spool of the cell-phone mail server 108 shown inFIG. 1 is checked to see if it exceeds 80% of the virtual maximumstorage capacity for User 2. If 80% of the virtual maximum storagecapacity is determined to be exceeded, the process continues to stepS809. Otherwise, the process continues to step S810.

[0194] At step S809, a piece of mail warning an overflow of a mailstorage capacity is sent to the user's e-mail address given by acellular phone company. Then the process continues to step S810.

[0195] At step S810, an incoming notice function is checked to see if itis set to ON by referring to a value in field 11 of the cell-phone userinformation storage area shown in FIG. 7, which is stored in a userinformation database 110 a of a database server 110 shown in FIG. 1. Ifit is determined to be set to OFF, the e-mail incoming function ends. Ifit is determined to be set to ON, the process continues to step S811.

[0196] At step S811, a value in field 17 of the cell-phone userinformation storage area is checked to see if it is 0. If a value in thefield 17 is determined to be 0, the process continues to step S812,where it stores the time of receiving the piece of e-mail (i.e.,incoming time of the piece of e-mail) in the field 17 of the cell-phoneuser information storage area. Then the process continues to step S813.

[0197] If a value in the field 17 is determined to be other than 0, theprocess continues to step S813.

[0198] At step S813, a value in field 18 of the cell-phone userinformation storage area is incremented by one. Then the processcontinues to step S814.

[0199] At step S814, a time period set for sending an incoming noticemail is checked to see if it elapses. More specifically, it isdetermined whether a value of the latest time of receiving the piece ofe-mail (i.e., incoming time of the piece of e-mail) subtracted with avalue in field 17 of the cell-phone user information storage area (timeof deference) is greater than a value in field 19 of the cell-phone userinformation storage area. If a value calculated is determined to begreater than a value in field 19, the process determines that a timeperiod set for sending an incoming notice mail elapses, and continues tostep S816. If a value calculated is determined to be less than a valuein field 19, the process determines that a time period set for sendingan incoming notice mail does not elapse, and continues to step S815.

[0200] At step S815, it is checked to see if the incoming number ofpieces of e-mail reaches the set number of pieces of mail to beaccumulated to send an incoming notice mail. More specifically, it isdetermined whether a value in field 18 of the cell-phone userinformation storage area subtracted with a value in field 10 is greaterthan 0. If a value calculated is determined to be greater than 0, theprocess determines that the set number of pieces of mail to beaccumulated is reached, and continues to step S816. If a valuecalculated is determined to be less than 0, the process determines thatthe set number of pieces of mail to be accumulated is not reached, andthe e-mail incoming process ends.

[0201] At step S816, to inform the user of incoming of a piece ofe-mail, a piece of e-mail containing a URL for cell-phone mail programrunning on the cell-phone WWW server 109 shown in FIG. 1 is sent to acellular phone e-mail address of the user.

[0202] The URL for cell-phone mail program contains ID information foridentifying the user.

[0203] Then the process continues to step S817, sets values in fields 17and 18 of the cell-phone user information storage area to 0, and thenthe e-mail incoming process ends.

[0204] In the case that time of receiving a piece of mail is set infield 17 at step S812 and a value in field 18 is set to 1 or more atstep S813 independently of a process of step S814, if a predeterminedtime period (a previously defined time period larger than a value infield 9) is determined to elapse without resetting a value in field 18to 0, an incoming notice mail is sent and values in fields 17 and 18will be reset to 0.

[0205] As described above, in the embodiment, a piece of e-mail receivedby the mail server 107 for PC is copied in the cell-phone mail server108. Accordingly, in order to view a piece of e-mail from a mobileterminal, the mail does not have to remain in a mail server for PC.Thus, a piece of e-mail can be viewed from a mobile terminal after themail has obtained at a PC.

[0206] [Description of E-mail Process]

[0207] Processes when User 2 controls a cell-phone WWW browser of acellular phone to manipulate a piece of e-mail will now be described byreferring to FIGS. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.

[0208] [Description of Logging in Process]

[0209] First, User 2 uses an e-mail address sending and receivingfunction given by a cellular phone company and views a piece of e-mailsent by a cell-phone user registration program or a piece of e-mail sentthrough an e-mail incoming process of a cell-phone mail program. Each ofthe pieces of e-mail contains a URL for cell-phone mail program asmentioned above.

[0210] When a URL for cell-phone mail program contained in the piece ofe-mail is selected by User 2, a cell-phone WWW browser of the cellularphone is started and an access to a URL for cell-phone mail programstarts.

[0211] When a URL for cell-phone mail program is accessed through thecell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone, the authentication program106 a of the WWW server 106 shown in FIG. 1 is started, which generatesa user authentication screen 1001 shown in FIG. 10 and sends the screento the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0212] When User 2 views the user authentication screen and enters apassword required for authentication, the authentication programsearches a user information database and refers to a user informationdata by using user identification ID information accompanying the URLfor cell-phone mail program and entered password information to performauthentication.

[0213] If the authentication succeeds, the authentication programgenerates an authentication ID, stores the authentication ID inassociation with the user ID in an authentication database and sets atimer for the authentication ID to a specific time period. Next, theauthentication program starts the cell-phone mail program 109 b of thecell-phone WWW server 109 shown in FIG. 1 and passes the generated andstored authentication ID to the cell-phone mail program.

[0214] Then the started cell-phone mail program refers to a piece ofmail stored in a mail storage area for User 2 in a mail spool of thecell-phone mail server 108 shown in FIG. 1 to search for an unread mailand extract a title of the mail, generates an unread mail list screen1101 shown in FIG. 11 and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browserof the cellular phone.

[0215] [Description of Unread Mail List Viewing Process]

[0216] When User 2 accesses with a URL for cell-phone mail program bycontrolling a cell-phone WWW browser of a cellular phone, or when User 2selects “Unread Mail List” button on any of an read mail list screen1202, a stored mail list screen 1203, or a sent mail list screen 1301,or when User 2 moves from an unread mail list to a mail viewing screen1102 shown in FIG. 11 and then selects “For List” button, the cell-phonemail program refers to a piece of mail stored in a mail storage area forUser 2 in a mail spool of a cell-phone mail server, and according to afiltering setting thereof, searches for an unread mail, extracts a titleof the mail, generates the unread mail list screen 1101 shown in FIG. 11and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellularphone.

[0217] The unread mail list screen 1101 is composed of an “area fordisplaying the number of newly arrived pieces of mail” representing thetotal number of pieces of mail which have been sent after the last timethe user accessed a URL for cell-phone mail program and viewed pieces ofmail and logged out (i.e., after the session closed); “Read Mail List”button for moving to a read mail list screen 1202; “Stored Mail List”button for moving to a stored mail list screen 1203, “Sent Mail List”button for moving to a sent mail list screen 1301; an “area fordisplaying an unread mail list” for displaying titles of pieces of mailwhich the user has not viewed by ten; “Create” button for moving to amail creating/sending screen 1303; “Screen Update” button for updatinginformation in the unread mail list; “Management Screen” button formoving to a management screen 1701; and “Menu” button for moving to amenu screen 1002.

[0218] User 2 can check unread pieces of mail by viewing an “area fordisplaying unread mail list” on an unread mail list screen. Ten titlesof unread pieces of mail are displayed for each page. If unread piecesof mail are more than ten, i.e., if the next page exists, a display areaat the bottom of the unread mail list screen is changed by adding “Next”button as shown in 1101 a. If a previous page and a next page exist,“Previous” button and “Next” button are displayed at the bottom of thescreen as shown in 1101 b. On the last page, “Previous” button is addedat the bottom of the screen as shown in 1101 c. That is to say, User 2can view an unread mail list across multiple pages by controlling“Previous” button and “Next” button to change the displayed page on theunread mail list screen.

[0219] [Description of Filtering Process in Generating an Unread MailList]

[0220] The cell-phone mail program searches and selects acceptableunread pieces of mail by checking a filtering condition and displays thepieces of mail on an “area for displaying an unread mail list” togenerate an unread mail list screen.

[0221] First, the cell-phone mail program refers to field 15 within acell-phone user information storage area of a user information database110 a shown in FIG. 1 and checks to see if a number of days filteringfunction is set to ON. If the number of days filtering function isdetermined to be set to ON, the cell-phone mail program refers to field8 within the cell-phone user information storage area, obtains the dateof the number of days filtering, searches and selects unread pieces ofmail sent between the obtained date of the number of days filtering andthe current date and time as candidates for listing, and stores thepieces of mail into a temporally area.

[0222] Next, the cell-phone mail program refers to field 14 within thecell-phone user information storage area of the user informationdatabase 110 a shown in FIG. 1 and checks to see if a title filterfunction is set to ON. If title filter function is determined to be setto ON, the cell-phone mail program refers to field 7 within thecell-phone user information storage area, obtains a title filtercharacter string, refers to titles contained in mail header informationon unread pieces of mail, checks to see if a title filter characterstring is contained, and stores the unread pieces of mail which do notcontain the title filter character string as candidates for listing in atemporally area. If the number of days filter function is set to ON inaddition to title filter function, title filtering is performed on theunread pieces of mail stored in a temporally area as candidates forlisting after being filtered by the number of days filter function. If apiece of mail whose mail header information contains title filtercharacter string is found, the mail is removed from the candidates forlisting.

[0223] Then, the cell-phone mail program refers to field 13 within thecell-phone user information storage area and checks to see if a senderfiltering function is set to ON. If the sender filtering function isdetermined to be set to ON, the cell-phone mail program refers to field6 within the cell-phone user information storage area, obtains a senderfiltering character string, refers to senders contained in mail headerinformation on unread pieces of mail, checks to see if the senderfiltering character string is contained in the pieces of mail, andstores the unread pieces of mail which do not contain the senderfiltering character string in a temporally area as candidates forlisting. If at least one of a number of days filter function and titlefilter function is set to ON, the sender filtering is performed on theunread pieces of mail stored in a temporally area as candidates forlisting after being filtered. If a piece of mail whose mail headerinformation contains a sender filtering character string is found, themail is removed from the candidates for listing.

[0224] Finally, the cell-phone mail program displays pieces of unreadmail left in the candidates for listing in an “area for displaying anunread mail lists to generate an unread mail list screen.

[0225] [Description of Unread Mail Viewing Process]

[0226] When User 2 selects a specific mail from the unread mail list onthe unread mail list screen 1101 shown in FIG. 11, the cell-phone mailprogram reads out data on the selected mail from a mail storage area forUser 2, adds read information indicating that it is a read mail in mailheader information on the mail, generates a mail viewing screen 1102shown in FIG. 11 and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser ofthe cellular phone. The mail selected and viewed becomes a read mail, sothat the mail is no longer displayed in the unread mail list on theunread mail list screen 1101, while displayed in a read mail list on aread mail list screen 1202 shown in FIG. 12.

[0227] The mail viewing screen 1102 is composed of an “area fordisplaying sender of mail”, an “area for displaying title of mail”, an“area for displaying date and time of sending mail”, an “area fordisplaying mail body” which displays 512 characters on each page,“Return” button for moving to a mail creating/sending screen with a mailsender contained in mail header information being set as a destination,“Return to Everyone” button for moving to a mail creating/sending screenwith an address of a mail sender contained in a mail header and anaddress contained in “to” or “cc” field of the mail being set asdestinations, “Forward” button for moving to a mail creating/sendingscreen with a mail body being set to a body as forward information, “Toa List” button for moving to a mail list screen (i.e., a button formoving to an unread mail list screen when a user has moved from anunread mail list screen to a mail viewing screen, and a button formoving to a read mail list screen when a user has moved from a read maillist to a mail viewing screen), “Delete” button for deleting a piece ofmail being viewed, “Store the Mail” button for setting the mail beingviewed not to be automatically deleted, and “Detailed Information”button for moving to a detailed information on a mail screen.

[0228] User 2 can check a mail body by viewing an area for displaying amail body. If a mail body consists of more than 512 characters, i.e., ifthe next page exists, a display area at the bottom of the mail viewingscreen is changed by adding “Next” button as shown in 1102 a. If aprevious page and a next page exist, “Previous” button and “Next” buttonare displayed at the bottom of the screen as shown in 1102 b. On thelast page, “Previous” button is added at the bottom of the screen asshown in 1102 c. That is to say, User 2 can view a mail body acrossmultiple pages by controlling “Previous” button and “Next” button tochange pages.

[0229] [Description of Mail Storage Process]

[0230] When User 2 selects “Store the Mail” button on a mail viewingscreen, the cell-phone mail program adds storage designating informationfor indicating that it is a stored mail to mail header information for apiece of mail displayed on the viewing screen (a piece of mail addedwith the storage designating information is referred to as “a storedmail” hereinafter), generates a stored mail viewing screen 1103 as shownin FIG. 11 and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of thecellular phone.

[0231] The stored mail viewing screen 1103 is composed of an “area fordisplaying sender of mail”, an “area for displaying title of mail”, an“area for displaying date and time of sending mail”, an “area fordisplaying mail body” which displays 512 characters on each page,“Return” button for moving to a mail creating/sending screen with a mailsender contained in mail header information being set as a destination,“Return to Everyone” button for moving to a mail creating/sending screenwith an address of a mail sender contained in a mail header and anaddress contained in “to” or “cc” field of the mail being set asdestinations, “Forward” button for moving to a mail creating/sendingscreen with a mail body being set to a body as forward information, “Toa List” button for moving to a mail list screen, “Delete” button fordeleting a piece of mail being viewed, “Reset Storage” button fordeleting a storage designating information on a piece of mail beingviewed, and “Detailed Information” button for moving to a detailedinformation on a mail screen.

[0232] Even if a stored mail exceeds a limit of a mail storage area forUser 2 in a mail spool of a cell-phone mail server, the mail is notdeleted in the e-mail incoming process of the cell-phone mail program(S804, S806).

[0233] A piece of mail which is directed to be stored is no longerdisplayed in a read mail list on a read mail list screen 1202 shown inFIG. 12, while displayed in a stored mail list on a stored mail listscreen 1203 shown in FIG. 12.

[0234] [Description of Reset Storage of Mail Process]

[0235] When User 2 selects “Reset Storage” button on a stored mailviewing screen, the cell-phone mail program deletes storage designatinginformation from mail header information on a piece of mail beingdisplayed on a viewing screen, generates a mail viewing screen 1102, andsends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0236] [Description of Mail Details Screen Viewing Process]

[0237] When User 2 selects Detailed Information button on a mail viewingscreen or a stored mail viewing screen, the cell-phone mail programanalyzes information contained in mail header information on the mailbeing viewed, generates a mail details screen 1201 shown in FIG. 12, andsends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0238] The screen of detailed information on a piece of mail 1201 iscomposed of an “area for displaying sender of mail”, an “area fordisplaying destination of mails, an “area for displaying CC destinationof mail”, an “area for displaying date and time of sending mail”, an“area for displaying title of mail”, an “area for displaying existenceof attached file” and an “area for displaying information on storedmail”. User 2 can view details of mail header information by viewing thescreen of detailed information on a piece of mail.

[0239] [Description of Read Mail List Viewing Process]

[0240] When User 2 selects “Read Mail List” button on one of an unreadmail list screen, a stored mail list screen, and a sent mail listscreen, or when User 2 moves from a read mail list to a mail viewingscreen and then selects “To a List” button, the cell-phone mail programsearches for a read mail and extracts a title of the mail by referringto read information in mail header information on a piece of mail storedin a mail storage area for User 2 in a mail spool of a cell-phone mailserver, generates a read mail list screen 1202 shown in FIG. 12 andsends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0241] The read mail list screen 1202 is composed of an “area fordisplaying the number of newly arrived pieces of mail” for displayingthe total number of pieces of mail sent after the last time the userviewed pieces of mail and logged out, “Unread Mail List” button formoving to an unread mail list screen, “Stored Mail List” button formoving to a stored mail list screen, “Sent Mail List” button for movingto a sent mail list screen, an “area for displaying a read mail list”for displaying ten titles of read pieces of mail for each page; “Create”button for moving to a mail creating/sending screen, “Screen Update”button for updating information in an read mail list, “ManagementScreen” button for moving to a management screen, and “Menu” button formoving to a menu screen.

[0242] User 2 can check the read mail by viewing an “area for displayinga read mail list” on a read mail list screen. Ten read pieces of mailare displayed on each page. If read pieces of mail are more than ten,i.e., if the next page exists, a display area at the bottom part of thescreen is changed by adding “Next” button as shown in the screen of 1202a. If a previous page and a next page exist, “Previous” button and“Next” button are displayed at the bottom of the screen as shown in thescreen of 1202 b. On the last page, “Previous” button is added at thebottom of the screen as shown in the screen of 1202 c. That is to say,User 2 can view a read mail list across multiple pages by controlling“Previous” button and “Next” button to change the displayed page on theread mail list.

[0243] [Description of Read Mail Viewing Process]

[0244] When User 2 selects a specific mail from a read mail list on aread mail list screen 1202, the cell-phone mail program reads out dataon the selected mail from a mail storage area for User 2, generates amail viewing screen 1102 as shown in FIG. 11 and sends the screen to thecell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0245] User 2 can check the contents of a read mail by viewing the mailviewing screen.

[0246] [Description of Stored Mail List Viewing Process]

[0247] When User 2 selects “Stored Mail List” button on one of an unreadmail list screen, a read mail list screen, and a sent mail list screen,or when User 2 moves from a stored mail list to a stored mail viewingscreen and then selects “To a List” button, the cell-phone mail programsearches for a stored mail and extracts a title of the mail by referringto read information in mail header information on a piece of mail storedin a mail storage area for User 2 in a mail spool of a cell-phone mailserver, generates a stored mail list screen 1203 as shown in FIG. 12 andsends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0248] The stored mail list screen 1203 is composed of an “area fordisplaying the number of newly arrived pieces of mail” for displayingthe total number of pieces of mail sent after the last time the userviewed pieces of mail and logged out, “Unread Mail List” button formoving to an unread mail list screen, “Read Mail List” button for movingto a read mail list screen, “Sent Mail List” button for moving to a sentmail list screen, an “area for displaying a stored mail list” fordisplaying ten titles of stored pieces of mail, “Create” button formoving to a mail creating/sending screen, “Screen Update” button forupdating information in a stored mail list, “Management Screen” buttonfor moving to a management screen, and “Menu” button for moving to amenu screen.

[0249] User 2 can check the stored mail by viewing an “area fordisplaying a stored mail list” on a stored mail list screen. Ten titlesof stored pieces of mail are displayed on each page. If stored pieces ofmail are more than ten, i.e., if the next page exists, a display area atthe bottom of the screen is changed by adding “Next” button as shown inthe screen of 1203 a. If a previous page and a next page exist,“Previous” button and “Next” button are displayed at the bottom of ascreen as shown in the screen of 1203 b. On the last page, “Previous”button is added at the bottom of a screen as shown in the screen of 1203c. That is to say, User 2 can view a stored mail list across multiplepages by controlling “Previous” button and “Next” button to change thedisplayed page on the stored mail list.

[0250] [Description of Stored Mail Viewing Process]

[0251] When User 2 selects a specific mail from a stored mail list on astored mail list screen 1203, the cell-phone mail program reads out dataon the selected mail from a mail storage area for User 2, generates astored mail viewing screen 1103 as shown in FIG. 11 and sends the screento the WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0252] User 2 can check the contents of a stored mail by viewing astored mail viewing screen.

[0253] [Description of Sent Mail List Viewing Process]

[0254] When “Sent Mail List” button is selected on one of an unread maillist screen, a read mail list screen, and a stored mail list screen,when “To a List” button is selected on a sent mail viewing screen 1302,or when “To a List” button is selected on a mail creating/sending screen1303, the cell-phone mail program searches for a sent mail stored in amail storage area for User 2 in a mail spool of a cell-phone mailserver, extracts a title of the mail, generates a sent mail list screen1301 as shown in FIG. 13 and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWWbrowser of the cellular phone.

[0255] The sent mail list screen 1301 is composed of an “area fordisplaying the number of newly arrived pieces of mail” for displayingthe total number of pieces of mail sent after the last time the userviewed pieces of mail and logged out, “Unread Mail List” button formoving to an unread mail list screen, “Read Mail List” button for movingto a read mail list screen, “Stored Mail List” button for moving to astored mail list screen, an “area for displaying a sent mail list” fordisplaying ten titles of sent pieces of mail for each page, “Create”button for moving to a mail creating/sending screen, “Screen Update”button for updating information in a sent mail list, “Management Screen”button for moving to a management screen, and “Menu” button for movingto a menu screen.

[0256] User 2 can check sent pieces of mail by viewing a sent mail liston a sent mail list screen. Ten titles of sent pieces of mail aredisplayed for each page. If sent pieces of mail are more than ten, i.e.,if the next page exists, a displayed area at the bottom of the screen ischanged by adding “Next” button as shown in the screen of 1301 a. If aprevious page and a next page exist, “Previous” button and “Next” buttonare displayed at the bottom of the screen as shown in the screen of 1301b. On the last page, “Previous” button is added at the bottom of ascreen as shown in the screen of 1301 c. That is to say, User 2 can viewa sent mail list across multiple pages by controlling “Previous” buttonand “Next” button to change the displayed page on the sent mail listscreen.

[0257] [Description of Sent Mail Viewing Process]

[0258] When User 2 selects a specific mail from a sent mail list on asent mail list screen 1301, the cell-phone mail program reads out dataon the selected mail from a mail storage area for User 2, generates asent mail viewing screen 1302 as shown in FIG. 13 and sends the screento the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0259] The sent mail viewing screen 1302 is composed of an “area fordisplaying TO destination of mail”, an “area for displaying CCdestination of mail”, an “area for displaying the titles of pieces ofmail”, an “area for displaying mail body” for displaying up to 512characters for each page, “Forward” button for moving to a mailcreating/sending screen with a mail body being set to a body as forwardinformation, “To a List” button for moving to a sent mail list screen,and “Delete” button for deleting a piece of mail being viewed.

[0260] User 2 can check the contents of a sent mail by viewing the sentmail viewing screen.

[0261] [Description of Mail Creating/Sending Process]

[0262] When User 2 selects “Create” button on one of an unread mail listscreen, a read mail list screen, a stored mail list screen, and a sentmail list screen, the cell-phone mail program generates a mailcreating/sending screen 1303 as shown in FIG. 13 and sends the screen tothe cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0263] When User 2 selects “Return” button on one of a mail viewingscreen and a stored mail viewing screen, the cell-phone mail programgenerates a mail creating/sending screen with a mail sender contained inmail header information being set as a destination and sends the screento the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0264] When User 2 selects “Return to Everyone” button on one of a mailviewing screen and a stored mail viewing screen, the cell-phone mailprogram generates a mail creating/sending screen with an address of amail sender contained in a mail header and other addresses contained inTO and CC fields as destinations, and sends the screen to the cell-phoneWWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0265] When User 2 selects “Forward” button on one of a mail viewingscreen and a stored mail viewing screen, the cell-phone mail programgenerates a mail creating/sending screen with a mail body being viewedbeing set to a body as forward information and sends the screen to thecell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0266] The cell-phone mail program refers to field 16 within acell-phone user information storage area in user information database110 a shown in FIG. 1, updates “Signature” check box according towhether a signature function is set or not and generates a mailcreating/sending screen. More specifically, if a signature function isset to ON in field 16, the mail creating/sending screen is generatedwith “Signature” check box having a check mark.

[0267] The cell-phone mail program refers to field 12 within acell-phone user information storage area, updates “BCC to me” check boxaccording to whether a BCC function is set or not and generates a mailcreating/sending screen. More specifically, if a BCC function is set toON, the mail creating/sending screen is generated with a “BCC to me”check box having a check mark.

[0268] The mail creating/sending screen 1303 is composed of “TO” buttonfor editing destinations of a piece of mail, an “area for displaying TOdestinations” which have been set, “CC” button for editing CCdestinations of a piece of mail, an “area for displaying CCdestinations” which have been set, “Title” button for editing titles ofpieces of mail, an “area for displaying titles of pieces of mail” whichhave been set, “Body” button for editing a mail body, an “area fordisplaying a leading character string of a body” which have been set,“Signature” check box for selecting whether a signature should beaffixed to the mail or not, “BCC to me” check box for selecting whethera piece of mail should be BCC to the e-mail address for PC of User 2 ornot, “Send” button for sending a piece of mail, “Save draft” button forstoring an unfinished mail, “Read draft” button for reading but anunfinished mail which has been stored, and “To a List” button for movingto a sent mail list screen.

[0269] User 2 can create and send a piece of mail by manipulating a mailcreating/sending screen.

[0270] [Detailed Description of “Return” Process and “Return toEveryone” Process]

[0271] The mail viewing screen 1102 and the stored mail viewing screen1103 have “Return” button and “Return to Everyone” button for creating areturn mail for a piece of mail being viewed. “Return” button is abutton for creating a return mail for a sender of a piece of mail beingviewed. “Return to Everyone” button is a button for creating a returnmail both for a sender of a piece of mail being viewed and to everyaddress but the receiver's mail address of addresses designated in TOand CC fields.

[0272] In the embodiment, e-mail is employed by using a mobileinformation terminal such as a cellular phone, whose display screen isvery small and the capacity of the inner memory is also small. For sucha mobile information terminal with a limited display area, if anunlimited size of contents is allowed to be displayed, operability for auser is degraded in such a way as it takes time to display the contentsrequired by a user. However, restriction on a mail body size leads toproblems such as all of a piece of e-mail body which should be readcannot be displayed. The embodiment limits the number of destinationaddresses which can be sent to at a time, for example up to 20. Suchlimitation of the number of destination addresses improves viewabilityand operability for a user in checking addresses which was set by theuser. It also reduces the number of destinations of a piece of mail tobe sent to at a time, so that the amount of a memory capacity needed ata time in a server can be reduced. Therefore, such limitation will leadan increased number of users to get a service at the server.

[0273] When “Return” button is pressed, the cell-phone mail programperforms the following processes.

[0274] (1) Obtain an address of Reply-To field of a piece of mail beingviewed. If Reply-To field does not exist in a piece of mail beingviewed, obtain an address from From field.

[0275] (2) Obtain a title of a piece of mail being viewed.

[0276] (3) Create a mail creating/sending screen with the addressesobtained at (1) inserted into TO field and a title of a piece of mailobtained at (2) inserted into title field, send the screen data to acell-phone WWW browser of a cellular phone and have the screen displayedthere. 1304 in FIG. 13 is a mail creating/sending screen (a screen atreturning a piece of mail) to be displayed on a cellular phone. Theaddress obtained at (1) is input beforehand and displayed at TO fieldand the title obtained at (2) is input beforehand and displayed at TOfield.

[0277] Process in the case that “Return to Everyone” button is pressedwill now be described.

[0278] (1) Obtain an address of Reply-To field of a piece of mail beingviewed. If Reply-To field does not exist in a piece of mail beingviewed, obtain an address from From field.

[0279] (2) Obtain all addresses in TO field of a piece of mail beingviewed and create an address list 1. Search the address list 1 for theaddress obtained at (1). If the address exists, delete the address fromthe address list 1. (3) Obtain all addresses in CC field of a piece ofmail being viewed and create an address list 2. Search the address list2 for the address obtained at (1). If the address exists, delete theaddress from the address list 2.

[0280] (4) Obtain data on a title field of a piece of mail being viewed.

[0281] (5) Create data on a mail creating/sending screen, insert theaddress obtained at (1) into TO field, and insert the addresses listedup in the address lists 1 and 2 into a CC field.

[0282] (6) Insert the title data obtained at (3) into a title field.

[0283] (7) Display the created data on the mail creating/sending screenwith the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone. The mailcreating/sending screen (a screen at returning a piece of mail toeveryone) displayed on a cellular phone is designated by 1305 in FIG.13. In the mail creating/sending screen 1305, an address obtained at (1)is displayed at TO field and one of the addresses inserted at (5) (i.e.,the address listed up at the top of the address list 1) is displayed atCC field.

[0284] As mentioned above, ways for setting an address to be inserted inTO field and in CC field in a returning mail are different for “Return”button and “Return to Everyone” button.

[0285] The above-mentioned “Return to Everyone” process will now bedescribed in detail with reference to FIG. 20.

[0286] In the case that too much mail addresses are set in a TO fieldand a CC field of a piece of mail being viewed, when “Return toEveryone” button is pressed, CC field may have an enormous number ofaddresses to be inserted. In such a case, the addresses will bedisplayed across multiple pages on a screen of a mobile informationdevice, which degrades the operability. In addition to being temporallyrecorded on a hard disk of a server, such information on addresses to besent is also stored as a part of a mail to be sent which is stored onthe hard disk. As the number of users who use a mobile informationdevice which is provided with a cell-phone mail service of theembodiment increases, a size of a storage area used to store addressesto be sent to increases too. For this reason, the embodiment reduces asize of a storage area to be used by limiting the maximum number ofdestination addresses which can be sent at a time to 20.

[0287]FIG. 20 illustrates the process from a point that “Return toEveryone” button is pressed to a point that a mail creating/sendingscreen 1305 with an address and a title being inserted is generated.

[0288] When “Return to Everyone” button is pressed, a list 1 foraddresses contained in To field of a piece of mail being viewed (anoriginal mail) is created at step 2001. Then, a list 2 for addressescontained in CC field of a piece of mail being viewed is created at step2002. Whether Reply-To field is contained in a piece of mail beingviewed is checked at step 2003. If Reply-To field exists, the processcontinues to step 2004 and stores addresses in the Reply-To into atemporally storage buffer 1. If Reply-To field does not exist, theprocess continues to step 2005 and stores addresses in From field of apiece of mail being viewed into a temporally storage buffer 1.

[0289] To prevent two copies of a return mail from being sent byaccident, it is determined that lists 1 and 2 include the same addressas one in the temporally storage buffer 1 at step 2006. If the sameaddress is included, the same address as one in the temporally storagebuffer 1 is deleted from the list 1 (or list 2) at step 2007.

[0290] A body of a piece of mail being viewed (an original mail) isstored in a temporally storage buffer 2 at step 2008.

[0291] An address in the temporally storage buffer 1 is set in TO fieldon a “return mail to everyone” creating/sending screen at step 2009.This will be a returning address. Then, the total number N of addressesincluded in address lists 1 and 2 is calculated at step 2010. The totalnumber N is checked whether it exceeds the upper limit of the number ofpieces of mail of 20 at step 2011. If it does not exceed the upperlimit, addresses in address lists 1 and 2 are set in CC field on a“return mail to everyone” creating/sending screen at step 2012, and anoriginal mail body stored in a temporally storage buffer 2 is insertedinto a mail body field on a “return mail to everyone” creating/sendingscreen as a quote at step 2014.

[0292] If a value of the total number N exceeds 20 (the number ofaddresses to be set in CC field exceeds 20), the addresses are not setin the CC field, and at step 2013, a message indicating that the mailwas not returned to everyone is inserted into the mail body field on a“return mail to everyone” creating/sending screen and an original mailbody stored in a temporally storage buffer 2 is also inserted into thefield as a quote.

[0293] Although an original mail body is described to be inserted into a“return mail to everyone” creating screen as a quote in the illustrationof FIG. 20, the process can be arranged not to insert a quote inconsideration of performance and communications costs for a cellularphone.

[0294] [Description of TO destination Editing Process in Creating Mail]

[0295] When User 2 selects “TO” button on a mail creating/sending screen1303, the cell-phone mail program generates a TO destination addressediting screen 1401 shown in FIG. 14 and sends the screen to acell-phone WWW browser of a cellular phone.

[0296] The TO destination address editing screen 1401 is composed of an“area for displaying a set destination list”, “Add Destination” buttonfor moving to a cell-phone mail address manual editing screen 1403,“Address Book Reference” button for moving to a cell-phone mail personaladdress book list screen 1501 shown in FIG. 15, and “Send Screen” buttonfor moving to a mail creating/sending screen 1303.

[0297] User 2 can add and edit TO destination addresses by manipulatingthe TO destination address editing screen 1401.

[0298] [Description of CC destination Editing Process in Creating Mail]

[0299] When User 2 selects “CC” button on a mail creating/sending screen1303, the cell-phone mail program generates a CC destination addressediting screen 1402 shown in FIG. 14 and sends the screen to thecell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0300] The CC destination address editing screen 1402 is composed of aset destination list, “Add Destination” button for moving to acell-phone mail address manual editing screen 1403, “Address BookReference” button for moving to a cell-phone mail personal address booklist screen 1501, and “Send Screen” button for moving to a mailcreating/sending screen.

[0301] User 2 can add and edit TO destination addresses by manipulatingthe CC destination address editing screen.

[0302] [Description of Cell-Phone Mail Address Manual Editing Process]

[0303] When a user selects a blank line at the end of set destinationlist or “Add Destination” button on a TO destination address editingscreen (or a CC destination address book editing screen), the cell-phonemail program generates a cell-phone mail address manual editing screen1403 shown in FIG. 14 and sends the screen to a cell-phone WWW browserof a cellular phone.

[0304] The cell-phone mail address manual editing screen 1403 iscomposed of “Name” text box for entering a destination name, “Address”text box for entering a destination mail address, two radio buttonswhich can be exclusively set for designating whether the entered nameand address should be added to just “destination” or to“destination/address book”, “Add” button for adding the entered name andaddress, “Return” button for suspending a work and returning to a TOdestination address editing screen (or a CC destination address editingscreen).

[0305] When User 2 selects “Return” button, the cell-phone mail programsuspends the process and generates a previous screen (a TO destinationaddress editing screen or a CC destination address editing screen) andsends the screen to the WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0306] When User 2 enters a destination name in “Name” text box, entersa destination mail address in “Address” text box, selects “Destination”radio button, and selects “Add” button, the cell-phone mail program setsthe set destination name and mail address to a destination, stores thedata in a temporally area and adds the data to a list on a TOdestination address editing screen (or a CC destination address editingscreen), and then generates a TO destination address editing screen (ora CC destination address editing screen) and sends the screen to thecell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0307] When User 2 enters a destination name in “Name” text box, entersa destination mail address in “Address” text box, selects“Destination/Address Book” radio button and selects “Add” button, thecell-phone mail program generates an address book adding screen of acell-phone mail address 1404 shown in FIG. 14 and sends the screen tothe cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0308] [Address book Adding Screen of Cell-Phone Mail Address]

[0309] The address book adding screen of a cell-phone mail address 1404is a screen for adding address information on a specific person to anaddress book. This screen is composed of “Name” text box for entering aspecific person's name, “Phonetic Expression” text box for entering aphonetic expression for a specific person's name, “Mail Address” textbox for entering a mail address for a specific person, “Personal AddressBook” check box for adding entered information to a personal addressbook, “Common Address Book” check box for adding entered information toa common address book, “Add” button for directing to add the enteredinformation to the address book, and “Stop” button to stop a work.

[0310] When User 2 enters a specific person's name in “Name” text box, aphonetic expression for a specific person's name in “Phoneticexpression” text box, a specific person's mail address in “Mail Address”text box, selects “Personal Address Book” check box and selects “Add”button, the cell-phone mail program stores the entered information in apersonal address book information storage area for User 2 in an addressbook database 1lob. Next, the cell-phone mail program sets the entereddestination name and mail address to a destination, stores them in atemporally area, adds them to a list on a TO destination address editingscreen (or a CC destination address editing screen). The cell-phone mailprogram then generates a TO destination address editing screen (or a CCdestination address editing screen) and sends the screen to thecell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0311] When User 2 enters a specific person's name in “Name” text box, aphonetic expression for a specific person's name in “PhoneticExpression” text box, a specific person's mail address in “Mail Address”text box, selects “Common Address Book” check box and selects “Add”button, the cell-phone mail program stores the entered information in acommon address book information storage area in an address book database110 b. Next, the cell-phone mail program sets the entered destinationname and mail address to a destination, stores them in a temporallyarea, adds them to a list on a TO destination address editing screen (ora CC destination address editing screen). The cell-phone mail programthen generates a TO destination address editing screen (or a CCdestination address editing screen) and sends the screen to thecell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0312] When User 2 selects “Stop” button, the cell-phone mail programstops the process, generates a cell-phone mail address manual editingscreen 1403, and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of thecellular phone.

[0313] [Description of Cell-Phone Mail Personal Address Book ReferenceProcess]

[0314] When User 2 selects “Address Book Reference” button on a TOdestination address editing screen (or a CC destination address editingscreen), the cell-phone mail program calls a cell-phone address bookprogram 109 c.

[0315] Next, the cell-phone address book program refers to address datastored in a personal address book data storage area for User 2 in anaddress book database 110 b, then generates a cell-phone mail personaladdress book list screen 1501 shown in FIG. 15 and sends the screen tothe cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0316] The cell-phone mail personal address book list screen 1501 iscomposed of “To Common” button for moving to a cell-phone mail commonaddress book list screen 1504, an “area for displaying the number ofregistered addresses” of a personal address book, “Search” button formoving to a search screen to search for data on a personal address book,respective buttons for moving to a cell-phone mail personal address booklist for each Japanese syllabary 1503 by searching a personal addressbook for each Japanese syllabary (Japanese “A” button, “KA” button, “SA”button, “TA” button, “NA” button, “HA” button, “MA” button, “YA” button,“RA” button and “WA” button for searching by each column of a table forJapanese syllabary, and an alphabet “A” button), and an “area fordisplaying a list of the last five addresses” for displaying a list offive names of address information which have recently been referred toby User.2.

[0317] User 2 can search and refer to an address book and then add aspecific person's name and e-mail address registered in a personaladdress book to a TO destination (or a CC destination) of a piece ofmail by manipulating the cell-phone personal address book list screen.

[0318] When User 2 selects one of Japanese “A” button, “KA” button, “SA”button, “TA” button, “NA” button, “HA” button, “MA” button, “YA” button,“RA” button, “WA” button, and an alphabet “A” button on the cell-phonemail personal address book list screen 1501, the cell-phone address bookprogram sorts and searches data on the personal address book for eachcolumn of a table for Japanese syllabary (an alphabet “A” button is fora name beginning with an alphabet), generates a list of a cell-phonemail personal address book for the column of a table for Japanesesyllabary designated with a button and sends the list to the cell-phoneWWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0319] The list of a cell-phone mail personal address book for Japanesesyllabary screen 1503 is composed of an address list where names aresorted for each column of a table for Japanese syllabary and displayedby 20 names for each page (for example, when User 2 selects Japanese “A”button, address data on names which begin with a column of “A” is sortedand displayed), “Next” button for moving to the next page, “AddressBook” button for moving to a cell-phone mail personal address book listscreen.

[0320] User 2 can check a specific person's address by viewing andmanipulating the address list for each column of a table for Japanesesyllabary.

[0321] When User 2 selects one of names displayed in an “area fordisplaying a list of the last five addresses” on a cell-phone mailpersonal address book list screen, or when User 2 selects one of namesdisplayed in an “area for displaying an address list for each column” ona cell-phone mail personal address book for Japanese syllabary listscreen, or when User 2 selects one of names displayed in an “area fordisplaying a list of search addresses” on a cell-phone mail address booksearch list screen displayed as a result of searching a personal addressbook, the cell-phone address book program generates a cell-phone mailpersonal address book viewing screen 1502 and sends the screen to thecell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0322] The cell-phone mail personal address book viewing screen 1502 isa screen for displaying details of specific person's addressinformation. The screen is composed of an “area for displaying name” ofa specific person, an “area for displaying a phonetic expression” of aspecific person's name, an “area for displaying a name of a company” towhich a specific person belongs, an “area for displaying an e-mailaddress” of a specific person, an “area for displaying a telephonenumber” of a specific person, an “area for displaying a facsimilenumber” of a specific person, “Add Destination” button for addingaddress information on a specific person to a destination, and “Return”button for moving to a previous screen (a cell-phone mail personaladdress book list screen, a cell-phone mail personal address book foreach Japanese syllabary list screen, or a cell-phone mail address booksearch list screen) by stopping the process.

[0323] When User 2 checks address information on a specific person andthen selects “Add Destination” button, the cell-phone address bookprogram informs a cell-phone mail program of specific person's name ande-mail address to set them to a destination and finishes the process.The cell-phone mail program which received the information adds theentered specific person's name and e-mail address to the list on a TOdestination address editing screen (or a CC destination address editingscreen), then generates a TO destination address editing screen (or a CCdestination address editing screen) and sends the screen to thecell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0324] [Description of Cell-Phone Mail Common Address Book ReferenceProcess]

[0325] When User 2 selects “To Common” button on a cell-phone mailpersonal address book list screen, the cell-phone address book programrefers to address data stored in a common address book data storage areaof an address book database 110 b, then generates a cell-phone mailcommon address book list screen 1504 shown in FIG. 15 and sends thescreen to the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0326] The cell-phone mail common address book list screen 1504 iscomposed of “To Personal” button for moving to a cell-phone mailpersonal address book list screen 1501, an “area for displaying thenumber of registered addresses” of a common address book, “Search”button for searching data on a common address book, respective buttonsfor moving to a cell-phone mail common address book list for eachJapanese syllabary 1506 by searching a common address book for eachJapanese syllabary (Japanese “A” button, “KA” button, “SA” button, “TA”button, “NA” button, “HA” button, “MA” button, “YA” button, “RA” buttonand “WA” button for searching by each column of a table for Japanesesyllabary, and an alphabet “A” button), an “area for displaying a listof the last five addresses for displaying a list of five names ofaddress information which have recently been referred to by User 2.

[0327] User 2 can search and refer to an address book and add specificperson's name and e-mail address registered in a common address book toa TO destination or a CC destination of a piece of mail by manipulatingthe cell-phone mail common address book list screen.

[0328] When User 2 selects one of Japanese “A” button, “KA” button, “SA”button, “TA” button, “NA” button, “HA” button, “MA” button, “YA” button,“RA” button, “WA” button, or an alphabet “A” button on a cell-phone mailcommon address book list screen, the cell-phone address book programsorts and searches data on a common address book for each column of atable for Japanese syllabary (an alphabet “A” button is for a namebeginning with an alphabet), generates a list of a cell-phone mailcommon address book for the column of a table for Japanese syllabarydesignated with a button and sends the list to the cell-phone WWWbrowser of the cellular phone.

[0329] The list of a cell-phone mail common address book for eachJapanese syllabary screen 1506 is composed of an “area for displaying alist of addresses for each column of a table for Japanese syllabary” fordisplaying 20 names for each page by sorting the names for each columnof a table for Japanese syllabary (for example, when User 2 selectsJapanese “A” button, address data on names which begin with a column of“A” is sorted and displayed), “Next” button for moving to the next page,“Address Book” button for moving to a cell-phone mail common addressbook list screen.

[0330] User 2 can check a specific person's address by viewing andmanipulating an address list for each column of a table for Japanesesyllabary.

[0331] When User 2 selects one of names displayed in an “area fordisplaying a list of the last five addresses” on a cell-phone mailcommon address book list screen, or when User 2 selects one of namesdisplayed in an “area for displaying an address list for each column” ona cell-phone mail common address book for each Japanese syllabary listscreen, or when User 2 selects one of names displayed in an “area fordisplaying a list of search addresses” on a cell-phone mail address booksearch list screen displayed as a result of searching a common addressbook, the cell-phone address book program generates a cell-phone mailcommon address book viewing screen 1505 and sends the screen to thecell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0332] The cell-phone mail common address book viewing screen 1505 is ascreen for displaying details of specific person's address information.The screen is composed of an “area for displaying name” of a specificperson, an “area for displaying a phonetic expression” of a specificperson's name, an “area for displaying a name of a company” to which aspecific person belongs, an “area for displaying an e-mail address” of aspecific person, an “area for displaying a telephone number” of aspecific person, an “area for displaying a facsimile number” of aspecific person, “Add Destination” button for adding address informationon a specific person to a destination, and “Return” button for moving toa previous screen (a cell-phone mail common address book list screen, acell-phone mail common address book for Japanese syllabary list screen,or a cell-phone mail address book search list screen) by stopping theprocess.

[0333] When User 2 checks address information on a specific person andthen selects “Add Destination” button, the cell-phone address bookprogram informs a cell-phone mail program of a specific person's nameand an e-mail address to set them to a destination and finishes theprocess. The cell-phone mail program which received the information setsthe set specific person's name and e-mail address to a destination,stores it to a temporally area and adds it to a list of a TO destinationaddress editing screen (or a CC destination address editing screen), andthen generates a TO destination address editing screen (or a CCdestination address editing screen) and sends the screen to thecell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0334] [Cell-Phone Mail Address Book Search Process]

[0335] When User 2 presses “Search” button on a cell-phone mail personaladdress book list screen (or presses “Search” button on a cell-phonemail common address book list screen), the cell-phone mail programcreates a cell-phone mail address book searching screen 1507 shown inFIG. 15 and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of thecellular phone.

[0336] The cell-phone mail address book searching screen 1507 iscomposed of “Name” text box for entering a name to be searched for,“Phonetic Expression” text box for entering a phonetic expression for aname to be searched for, and “Search” button to start a search.

[0337] When User 2 enters at least either of a “name” to be searched foror a “phonetic expression” for a name to be searched for and thenselects “Search” button, the cell-phone address book program refers toaddress data stored in a personal address book data storage area (or acommon address book data storage area) for User 2 in an address bookdatabase 110 b, searches address data matching the entered “name” (or a“phonetic expression” of a name), and generates a cell-phone mailaddress book search list screen 1508 from the result of the search andsends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0338] The cell-phone address book list screen 1508 displays a searchaddress list which is searched and shows a name of an address. User 2can check a searched address by viewing addresses displayed on a searchaddress list.

[0339] [Description of Title Editing Process]

[0340] When User 2 selects “Title” button on a mail creating/sendingscreen 1303 shown in FIG. 13, the cell-phone mail program generates atitle editing screen 1601 shown in FIG. 16 and sends the screen to thecell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0341] The title editing screen 1601 is composed of “Title” text box forentering a title and “Set” button for setting a title.

[0342] When User 2 enters a title in “Title” text box on a title editingscreen and selects “Set” button, the cell-phone mail program sets theentered title to a title, stores it in a temporally area, and thengenerates a mail creating/sending screen 1303 shown in FIG. 13 and sendsthe screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0343] [Description of Body Editing Process]

[0344] When User 2 selects “Body” button on a mail creating/sendingscreen 1303 shown in FIG. 13, the cell-phone mail program generates abody editing screen 1602 shown in FIG. 16 and sends the screen to thecell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0345] The body editing screen 1602 is composed of “Page 1” and “Page 2”text boxes for entering 512 characters respectively, “Standard Sentence”button for moving to a standard sentence list screen 1606 to insert astandard sentence, “Display Whole Body” button for displaying whole ofthe entered body, and “Set” button for setting the entered body.

[0346] The number of characters which can be entered in each text box isconsidered to be 512 in the embodiment due to specifications of acellular phone.

[0347] To enter a body, User 2 first enters text in “Page 1” text box.If the number of characters exceeds 512, User 2 keeps on enteringcharacters in “Page 2” text box. User 2 can enter the body including upto 1024 characters by using both “Page 1” and “Page 2” text boxes.

[0348] More specifically, when User 2 selects “Page 1” text box on abody editing screen, a display on a cellular phone changes to a bodypage 1 editing screen 1603 for a user to enter into the text box, andwhen User 2 selects “Page 2” text box on a body editing screen, adisplay on a cellular phone changes to a body page 2 editing screen 1604for a user to enter into the text box, so that User 2 enters a body texton the body page 1 editing screen or on the body page 2 editing screen.When User 2 confirms the entered sentences by such a way as clicking ona confirmation button on a cellular phone when the screen of the phonedisplays a body page 1 editing screen (or a body page 2 editing screen),the entered body is confirmed to be entered in “Page 1” text box (or“Page 2” text box) and the display changes to a body editing screen1602.

[0349] [Description of Standard Sentence Inserting Process at EditingBody]

[0350] To insert a standard sentence into a body which is being entered,User 2 selects “Standard Sentence” button on a body editing screen 1602.When the “Standard Sentence” button is selected, a body which have beenentered in “Page 1” and “Page 2” text boxes is sent from the cellularphone to a cell-phone mail program and stored in a temporally area. Thenthe cell-phone mail program reads out fields from 21 to 30 within acell-phone user information storage area for User 2 in a userinformation database 110 a shown in FIG. 1, generates a standardsentence list screen 1606 shown in FIG. 16 and sends the screen to theWWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0351] More specifically, the cell-phone mail program reads outcharacter strings of standard sentences and a frequency of use for eachstandard sentence stored in fields from 21 to 30 within a cell-phoneuser information storage area, generates a standard sentence listdisplaying standard sentences in descending order of frequency,generates a standard sentence list screen and sends the screen to thecell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone. In an alternativeembodiment, the cell phone mail program may read out character stringsof standard sentences and the last used date and time for each standardsentence stored in fields from 21 to 30 within a cell-phone userinformation storage area, generate a standard sentence list displayingstandard sentences in the order of date and time, generate a standardsentence list screen and send the screen to the cell-phone WWW browserof the cellular phone.

[0352] The standard sentence list screen 1606 is composed of an “areafor displaying a standard sentence list” for displaying a leading eightcharacters to enable each standard sentence from 1 to 10 to bedistinguished.

[0353] When User 2 views a standard sentence list and selects one of thestandard sentences displayed in an “area for displaying a standardsentence list”, the cell-phone mail program generates a standardsentence inserting screen 1607 for displaying the whole of the selectedstandard sentence and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser ofthe cellular phone.

[0354] The standard sentence inserting screen 1607 is composed of anarea for displaying a whole of the selected standard sentence and“Insert into Body” button for inserting the standard sentence.

[0355] When User 2 selects “Insert into Body” button, the cell-phonemail program adds a body of a standard sentence being displayed to theend of a body which has been entered and stored in a temporally area,then creates a body editing screen 1602 with the standard sentence beingadded to a body in Page 1 text box and Page 2 text box, and sends thescreen to the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0356] In other words, when a body is entered only in “Page 1” text boxon a body editing screen 1602 and “Standard Sentence” button isselected, the display changes to a standard sentence list screen 1606.When “Insert into Body” button is selected on a standard sentenceinserting screen 1607 afterwards, the cell-phone mail program generatesa body editing screen 1602 with the selected standard sentence beingadded at the end of the body which has been entered in “Page 1” textbox, and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellularphone. When “Standard Sentence” button is selected with a body beingentered in “Page 2” text box on a body editing screen 1602, the displaychanges to a standard sentence list screen 1606. When “Insert into Body”button is selected on a standard sentence inserting screen 1607afterwards, the cell-phone mail program generates a body editing screen1602 with the selected standard sentence being added at the end of abody which has been entered in “Page 2” text box and sends the screen tothe cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0357] When “Standard Sentence” button is selected with a body beingentered only in “Page 1” text box on a body editing screen 1602, thedisplay changes to a standard sentence list screen 1606. When “Insertinto Body” button is selected on a standard sentence inserting screen1607 afterwards and if the total number of characters of a body and astandard sentence which have been entered exceeds 512, the cell-phonemail program divides the standard sentence at the count of (512—thenumber of characters of a body) by character from the beginning and addscharacters of the first part to a body to make the first part entered in“Page 1” text box, while making the latter part entered in “Page 2” textbox, and then generates a body editing screen 1602 and sends the screento the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone. In such a manner, astandard sentence can be entered without interruption during insertionof the standard sentence, and operability in entering operation isimproved.

[0358] When a standard sentence is used, the cell-phone mail programincrements a value in a frequency of use area in a field correspondingto the selected standard sentence of fields from 21 to 30 within acell-phone user information storage area by one, while storing the dateand time of inserting the selected standard sentence as the last dateand time of use.

[0359] [Description of Whole Body Viewing Process at Editing the Body]

[0360] When User 2 selects “Display Whole Body” button on a body editingscreen 1602, each character string entered in “Page 1” and “Page 2” textboxes is sent from the cellular phone to the cell-phone mail program.The cell-phone mail program generates a whole body display screen 1605for displaying a whole body by joining each part entered in “Page 1” and“Page 2” text boxes and then sends the screen to the cell-phone WWWbrowser of the cellular phone.

[0361] User 2 can check the contents of a whole body which the user hasentered at a time by viewing characters displayed in a whole bodydisplay area.

[0362] [Description of Selecting of Set Button at Editing a Body]

[0363] When User 2 selects “Set” button on a body editing screen 1602,the cell-phone mail program sets whole characters entered in “Page 1”and “Page 2” text boxes as a body by joining them, stores the body in atemporally area, and then generates a mail creating/sending screen 1303and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellularphone. The mail creating/sending screen 1303 displays some of theleading characters of a body.

[0364] [Description of Save Draft and Read Draft Process]

[0365] When User 2 selects “Save Draft” button during creating a pieceof mail on a mail creating/sending screen 1303, the cell-phone mailprogram saves information related to a piece of mail stored in atemporally area into a mail storage area in a user information database110 a.

[0366] When User 2 selects “Read Draft” button on a mailcreating/sending screen 1303, the cell-phone mail program reads outinformation related to a piece of mail stored in a mail storage area ina user information database 110 a, sets in respective entries, stores itin a temporally area, and then creates a mail creating/sending screen1303 and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser.

[0367] [Mail Sending Process]

[0368] When User 2 creates a piece of mail by manipulating a mailcreating/sending screen 1303 as mentioned above and selects “Send”button, the cell-phone mail program starts a mail sending process.

[0369] In other words, the cell-phone mail program initially checks“Signature” check box to see if it has a check mark. If the check boxhas a check mark, the cell-phone mail program reads in a signaturecharacter string in field 20 within a cell-phone user informationstorage area in a user information database 110 a and adds the string tothe end of a mail body. Next, the cell-phone mail program checks “BCC tome” check box to see if it has a check mark. If the check box has acheck mark, the dell-phone mail program adds an e-mail address for PC ofUser 2 to a BCC destination contained in mail header information on thecreated mail.

[0370] Then the cell-phone mail program accesses a cell-phone MTAprogram 108 a of a cell-phone mail server 108 and asks for distributionof a piece of e-mail. The MTA program which is asked for distribution ofa piece of e-mail distributes the mail through SMTP (simple mailtransfer protocol). In From field indicating the source of thedistributed mail, an e-mail address for PC is set. In this manner, apiece of e-mail sent to an e-mail address for PC of User 2 which isadded to a Bcc destination can be prevented from being forwarded to acell-phone mail server.

[0371] [Description of Management Process]

[0372] When User 2 selects “Management Screen” button on one of anunread mail list screen 1101, a read mail list screen 1202, a storedmail list screen 1203 and a sent mail list screen 1301, the cell-phonemail program generates a management screen 1701 shown in FIG. 17 andsends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0373] The management screen 1701 is composed of an “Incoming NoticeSetting” link character string for moving to an incoming notice settingscreen 1702, a “Filter Setting” link character string for moving to afilter setting screen 1703, and a “Signature setting” link characterstring for moving to a signature setting screen 1704.

[0374] [Description of Incoming Notice Setting Process]

[0375] When User 2 selects an “Incoming Notice Setting” link characterstring on a management screen 1701, the cell-phone mail programgenerates an incoming notice setting screen 1702 and sends the screen tothe cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0376] The incoming notice setting screen 1702 is composed of “ShortestNotice Period” text box for setting how many minuets should elapse fromthe sending of the last incoming notice mail to send another incomingnotice mail, “The Number of Newly Arrived Pieces of Mail” text box forsetting how many pieces of mail should arrive since the sending of thelast incoming notice mail to send another incoming notice mail, “Notice”check box for setting whether an incoming notice mail should be sent ornot, “Set” button for storing a value entered by User 2 into a database,and “Stop” button for stopping the process and returning to a managementscreen.

[0377] When User 2 enters values of “Shortest Notice Period” text boxand “The Number of Newly Arrived Pieces of Mail” text box, sets “Notice”check box, and then selects “Set” button, the cell-phone mail programstores each value set by User 2 in each corresponding field (morespecifically, fields 9, 10, and 11) within a cell-phone user informationstorage area in a user information database 110 a.

[0378] [Description of Filter Setting Process]

[0379] When User 2 selects a “Filter Setting” link character string on amanagement screen 1701, the cell-phone mail program generates a filtersetting screen 1703 and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browserof the cellular phone.

[0380] The filter setting screen 1703 is composed of “Sender” check boxfor setting whether a sender filter should function or not, “Sender”text box for setting a sender filter character string, “Title” check boxfor setting whether a title filter should function or not, “Title” textbox for setting a title filter character string, “Number of Date” checkbox for setting whether a number of date filter should function or not,“Number of Date” text box for setting a date of a number of date filter,“Set” button for storing a value entered by User 2 in a database, and“Stop” button for stopping the process and returning to a managementscreen.

[0381] When User 2 sets “Sender” check box, “Sender” text box, “Title”check box, “Title” text box, “Number of Date” check box, and “Number ofDate” text box and then selects “Set” button, the cell-phone mailprogram stores each value set by User 2 in each corresponding field(more specifically, fields 13, 6, 14, 7, 15, and 8) within a cell-phoneuser information storage area in a user information database 110 a.

[0382] [Description of Signature Setting Process]

[0383] When User 2 selects “Signature Setting” link character string ona management screen 1701, the cell-phone mail program generates asignature setting screen 1704 and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWWbrowser of the cellular phone.

[0384] The signature setting screen 1704 is composed of “Signature” textbox for setting a signature character string, “Set” button for storing avalue entered by User 2 in a database, and “Stop” button for stoppingthe process and returning to a management screen.

[0385] When Use 2 enters a character string in “Signature” text box andthen selects “Set” button, the cell-phone mail program stores asignature character string entered by User 2 in field 20 within acell-phone user information storage area in a user information database110 a.

[0386] [Description of Address Book Operation]

[0387] The process where User 2 manipulates an address book bycontrolling a WWW browser of a cellular phone will now be described withreference to FIGS. 18 and 19.

[0388] First, User 2 selects a URL for cell-phone address book programcontained in a piece of e-mail. Then, a WWW browser of the cellularphone starts and initiates an access to a URL for cell-phone addressbook program. When the URL for cell-phone address book program isaccessed by a WWW browser of the cellular phone, an authenticationprogram 106 a of the WWW server 106 starts and generates a userauthentication screen 1001 and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWWbrowser of the cellular phone. When User 2 enters a password requiredfor authentication, the authentication program searches a userinformation database by using user identification ID informationaccompanying the URL for cell-phone address book program and the enteredpassword information, and performs authentication by referring to theuser information data. If the authentication succeeds, theauthentication program generates an authentication ID, stores theauthentication ID in association with the user ID into an authenticationdatabase, and sets an authentication ID timer to a specific period oftime. Then the authentication program starts a cell-phone address bookprogram 109 c of a cell-phone WWW server 109 and passes the generatedand stored authentication ID to the cell-phone address book program.

[0389] The started cell-phone address book program refers to a personaladdress book data storage area for User 2 in an address book database110 b shown in FIG. 1, reads in address data, generates a personaladdress book list screen 1801 shown in FIG. 18 and sends the screen tothe cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0390] The personal address book list screen 1801 is also displayed when“Address Book” is selected on a menu screen 1002.

[0391] [Description of Personal Address Book Viewing Process]

[0392] The personal address book list screen 1801 is composed of “ToCommon” button for moving to a common address book list screen 1901shown in FIG. 19, an “area for displaying the number of registeredaddresses” of a personal address book, “Search” button for searchingdata on a personal address book, respective buttons for moving to apersonal address book list for each Japanese syllabary designated by1804 shown in FIG. 18 with a personal address book being searched byeach column of a table for Japanese syllabary (Japanese “A” button, “KA”button, “SA” button, “TA” button, “NA” button, “HA” button, “MA” button,“YA” button, “RA” button and “WA” button and an alphabet “A” button), an“area for displaying a list of the last five addresses” for displaying alist of five names of address information which have recently beenreferred to by User 2, and “Menu” button for moving to a menu screen1003 shown in FIG. 10.

[0393] [Description of Personal Address Book for Each Japanese SyllabaryList Viewing Process]

[0394] When User 2 selects one of respective buttons for moving to apersonal address book list screen (Japanese “A” button, “KA” button,“SA” button, “TA” button, “NA” button, “HA” button, “MA” button, “YA”button, “RA” button, “WA” button, or an alphabet “A” button), thecell-phone address book program sorts and searches data on a personaladdress book for each column of a table for Japanese syllabary,generates a list of a personal address book for each Japanese syllabaryand sends the list to the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0395] The personal address book for each Japanese syllabary list screen1804 is composed of an address list for sorting names by each column ofa table for Japanese syllabary and displaying 20 names for each page(When User 2 selects Japanese “A” button, address data on names whichbegin with a column of Japanese “A” is sorted and the names aredisplayed in descending order.), “Next” button for moving to the nextpage, “Previous” button for moving to the previous page, and “AddressBook” button for moving to a personal address book list screen.

[0396] User 2 can check a specific person's address by viewing andmanipulating an address list for each column of a table for Japanesesyllabary.

[0397] [Personal Address Book Viewing Screen]

[0398] When User 2 selects one of addresses displayed in an “area fordisplaying a list of the last five addresses” on a personal address booklist screen, or when User 2 selects one of addresses displayed in an“area for displaying an address list for each column of table forJapanese syllabary” on a personal address book list for each Japanesesyllabary, or when User 2 selects one of addresses registered in apersonal address book displayed in an “area for displaying a searchaddress list” on an address book search result list 1909, the cell-phoneaddress book program generates a personal address book viewing screen1802 and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellularphone.

[0399] The personal address book viewing screen 1802 is a screen fordisplaying details of specific person's address information. The screenis composed of an “area for displaying a name” of a specific person, an“area for displaying a phonetic expression” of a specific person's name,an “area for displaying a name of a company” to which a specific personbelongs, an “area for displaying an e-mail address” of a specificperson, an “area for displaying a telephone number” of a specificperson, an “area for displaying a facsimile number” of a specificperson, “Edit” button for moving to a personal address book registrationediting screen 1805, and “Delete” button for moving to a personaladdress book delete screen 1803.

[0400] When User 2 views a personal address book viewing screen andselects a specific person's telephone number, a telephone function ofthe cellular phone starts operating and automatically dials the selectedtelephone number.

[0401] When User 2 views a personal address book viewing screen andselects a specific person's e-mail address, an e-mail function of thecellular phone starts operating and displays a piece of e-mail sendingscreen on the cellular phone with the selected e-mail address being adestination.

[0402] [Description of Personal Address Book Deleting Process]

[0403] When User 2 selects “Delete” button on a personal address bookviewing screen, the cell-phone address book program generates a personaladdress book delete screen 1803 and sends the screen to the WWW browserof the cellular phone. The personal address book delete screen 1803 iscomposed of an area for displaying a name” of a specific person to bedeleted, “Stop” button for stopping the deleting process, and “Delete”button for performing the deleting process.

[0404] When User 2 selects “Delete” button on a personal address bookdelete screen, the cell-phone address book program deletes the selectedaddress data from a personal address book data storage area for User 2in an address book database 110 b, and then generates a personal addressbook list screen and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser ofthe cellular phone.

[0405] [Description of Personal Address Book Registration EditingProcess]

[0406] When User 2 selects “Register” button on a personal address booklist screen 1801, the cell-phone address book program generates apersonal address book registration editing screen 1805 and sends thescreen to the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone. When User 2selects “Edit” button on a personal address book viewing screen 1802,the cell-phone address book program sets the current address informationto corresponding entries and then generates a personal address bookregistration editing screen 1805 and sends the screen to the WWW browserof the cellular phone.

[0407] The personal address book registration editing screen 1805 iscomposed of “Name” text box for setting a specific person's name,Phonetic Expression for Name” text box for setting a phonetic expressionfor a specific person's name, “Company Name” text box for setting a nameof a company to which a specific person belongs, “Phonetic Expressionfor Company Name” text box for setting a phonetic expression for a nameof a company to which a specific person belongs, “Telephone Number” textbox for setting a telephone number of a specific person, “FAX” text boxfor setting a facsimile number of a specific person, “Address” text boxfor setting a specific person's e-mail address, “Register” button fordirecting the set address information to be registered, and “Stop”button for stopping a personal address book registration editingprocess.

[0408] When User 2 sets respective pieces of address book information ona personal address book registration editing screen and then selects“Register” button, the cell phone address book program stores therespective pieces of set address book information in a personal addressbook data storage area for User 2 in an address book database 110 b.

[0409] At this moment, if the cell-phone address book program succeedsin storing the information, it generates a personal address bookregistration completion screen 1806 and sends the screen to thecell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone. If it fails in storing theinformation, the cell-phone address book program generates a personaladdress book registration failure screen 1807 and sends the screen tothe cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0410] [Description of a Common Address Book Viewing Process]

[0411] When User 2 selects “To Common” button on a personal address booklist screen, the cell-phone address book program refers to a commonaddress book data storage area in an address book database 110 b, readsin address data, generates a common address book list screen 1901 shownin FIG. 19 and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of thecellular phone. The common address book is an address book which can beviewed by other users.

[0412] The common address book list screen 1901 is composed of “ToPersonal” button for moving to a personal address book list screen 1801,an “area for displaying the number of registered addresses” of a commonaddress book, “Search” button for searching data on a common addressbook, respective buttons for moving to a common address book list foreach Japanese syllabary with a common address book being searched byeach column of a table for Japanese syllabary (Japanese “A” button, “KA”button, “SA” button, “TA” button, “NA” button, “HA” button, “MA” button,“YA” button, “RA” button and “WA” button, and an alphabet “A” button),an “area for displaying a list of the last five addresses” fordisplaying a list of five names of address information which haverecently been referred to by User 2, and “Menu” button for moving to amenu screen 1003.

[0413] [Description of a Common Address Book List for Each JapaneseSyllabary Viewing Process]

[0414] When User 2 selects one of respective buttons for moving from acommon address book list screen to a common address book list for eachJapanese syllabary screen (Japanese “A” button, “KA” button, “SA”button, “TA” button, “NA” button, “HA” button, “MA” button, “YA” button,“RA” button, “WA” button or an alphabet “A” button), the cell-phoneaddress book program sorts and searches data on a common address book byeach column of a table for Japanese syllabary, generates a list of acommon address book for each Japanese syllabary and sends the list tothe cell-phone WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0415] The common address book list for each Japanese syllabary screen1902 is composed of an address list for each column of a table forJapanese syllabary with names being sorted for each column of a tablefor Japanese syllabary and displayed by 20 for each page (for example,when User 2 selects Japanese “A” button, address data on names whichbegin with a column of “A” is sorted and displayed in descending orderof Japanese syllabary), “Next” button for moving to the next page,“Previous” button for moving. to the previous page, and “Address Book”button for moving to a common address book list screen.

[0416] User 2 can check a specific person's address by viewing andmanipulating the address list for each column of a table for Japanesesyllabary.

[0417] [Common Address Book Viewing Screen]

[0418] When User 2 selects one of addresses displayed in an “area fordisplaying a list of the last five addresses” on a common address booklist screen, or when User 2 selects one of addresses displayed in anarea for displaying an address list for each column of a table forJapanese syllabary” on a common address book list for each Japanesesyallabary screen, or when User 2 selects one of addresses registered ina common address book displayed in an “area for displaying a searchaddress list” on an address book search result list screen, thecell-phone address book program generates a common address book viewingscreen 1903 and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of thecellular phone.

[0419] The common address book viewing screen 1903 is a screen fordisplaying details of specific person's address information. The screenis composed of an area for displaying a name” of a specific person, an“area for displaying a phonetic expression” of a specific person's name,an “area for displaying a name of a company” to which a specific personbelongs, an “area for displaying an e-mail address” of a specificperson, an “area for displaying telephone number” of a specific person,an “area for displaying facsimile number” of a specific person, “Edit”button for moving to a common address book registration editing screen1905, and “Delete” button for moving to a personal address book deletescreen 1904.

[0420] When User 2 views the common address book viewing screen and thenselects a specific person's telephone number, a telephone function ofthe cellular phone starts operating and automatically dials the selectedtelephone number. When User 2 views the common address book viewingscreen and then selects a specific person's e-mail address, an e-mailaddress function of the cellular phone starts operating and displays apiece of e-mail sending screen of the cellular phone with the e-mailaddress being a destination.

[0421] [Description of Common Address Book Deleting Process]

[0422] When User 2 selects “Delete” button on a common address bookviewing screen, the cell-phone address book program generates a commonaddress book delete screen 1904 and sends the screen to the WWW browserof the cellular phone. The common address book delete screen 1904 iscomposed of an “area for displaying a name” of a specific person, “Stop”button for directing to stop the deleting process, and “Delete” buttonfor directing to perform the deleting process.

[0423] When User 2 selects “Delete” button on a common address bookdelete screen, the cell-phone address book program deletes the selectedaddress data from a common address book data storage area in an addressbook database 110 b, and then generates a common address book listscreen and sends the screen to the WWW browser of the cellular phone.

[0424] [Description of Common Address Book Registration Editing Process]

[0425] When User 2 selects “Register” button on a common address booklist screen, the cell-phone address book program generates a commonaddress book registration editing screen 1905 and sends the screen tothe WWW browser of the cellular phone. When User 2 selects “Edit” buttonon a common address book viewing screen, the cell-phone address bookprogram sets the current address information to each corresponding entryand then generates a common address book registration editing screen1905 and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of the cellularphone.

[0426] The common address book registration editing screen 1905 iscomposed of “Name” text box for setting a specific person's name,“Phonetic Expression of Name” text box for setting a phonetic expressionfor a specific person's name, “Company Name” text box for setting a nameof a company to which a specific person belongs, “Phonetic Expressionfor Company Name” text box for setting a phonetic expression for a nameof a company to which a specific person belongs, “Telephone Number” textbox for setting a specific person's telephone number, “FAX” text box forsetting a specific person's facsimile number, “Address” text box forsetting a specific person's e-mail address, “Register” button fordirecting to register the set address information, and “Stop” button fordirecting to stop the common address book registration editing process.

[0427] When User 2 enters on a common address book registration editingscreen the respective pieces of address book information and thenselects “Register” button, the cell-phone address book program storesthe respective pieces of entered address book information into a commonaddress book data storage area in an address book database 110 b.

[0428] If the cell-phone address book program succeeds in storing theinformation, it generates a common address book registration completionscreen 1906 and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of thecellular phone. If it fails in storing the information, the cell-phoneaddress book program generates a common address book registrationfailure screen 1907 and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browserof the cellular phone.

[0429] [Address Book Search Process]

[0430] When User 2 presses “Search” button on a personal address booklist screen (or presses “Search” button on a common address book listscreen), the cell-phone mail program generates an address book searchscreen 1908 and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWW browser of thecellular phone.

[0431] The cell-phone mail address book search screen 1908 is composedof “Name” text box for entering a name to be searched for, “PhoneticExpression” text box for entering a phonetic expression for a name to besearched for, and “Search” button for directing to start a search.

[0432] When User 2 enters at least one of a name to be searched for anda phonetic expression for a name to be searched for, and then selects“Search” button, the cell-phone address book program refers to addressdata stored in a personal address book data storage area (or a commonaddress book data storage area) for User 2 in an address book database110 b, searches for address data which matches the entered name orphonetic expression for a name and then generates an address book searchresult list screen 1909 and sends the screen to the cell-phone WWWbrowser of the cellular phone.

[0433] The cell-phone mail address book search result list screen 1909is composed of a search address list for displaying a name of a searchedaddress.

[0434] User 2 can check a searched address by viewing an addressdisplayed on a search address list.

[0435] [Description of Session Information Storing Process]

[0436] The cell-phone mail program and the cell-phone address bookprogram generate session information in generating a first screen, andstore the information into a temporally area associated with the screenbeing displayed. When User 2 controls the cell-phone WWW browser to moveto another screen, the cell-phone mail program and the cell-phoneaddress book program generate new screen identification information togenerate a new screen, add the information to session information storedin a temporally area associated with the first screen, and then storethe information into a temporally area associated with a newly generatedscreen.

[0437] For each time a new screen is generated in the future, thecell-phone mail program and the cell-phone address book program repeatthe above-mentioned process. In other words, the cell-phone mail programand the cell-phone address book program can identify the screen fromwhich the user moved to the current screen by referring to sessioninformation stored in a temporally area associated with the currentscreen.

[0438] As mentioned above, the present invention improves viewabilityand operability at creating “Return mail to Everyone”.

[0439] As described in the embodiments, the total number of users to beprovided with the service can be increased.

What is claimed is:
 1. An e-mail processing system with a predeterminedlimit on the number of destination addresses of a piece of e-mail to besent, comprising: a determination means for determining whether thenumber of destination addresses of a piece of e-mail being viewed to bereturned to everyone exceeds said predetermined limit when directed tobe returned to everyone for said piece of e-mail being viewed; and ageneration means for generating a piece of return mail creation screenwith predetermined addresses in said piece of e-mail being viewed beingset as destinations of the piece of return mail when said predeterminedlimit is determined to be exceeded, and for generating a piece of returnmail creation screen with an everyone's address for said piece of e-mailbeing viewed being set as a destination of the piece of return mail whensaid predetermined limit is determined not to be exceeded.
 2. The e-mailprocessing system according to claim 1, wherein said piece of returnmail creation screen generated by said generation means furthercomprising a message indicating that everyone's address is not set as adestination of a piece of return mail, when said predetermined limit isdetermined to be exceeded.
 3. The e-mail processing system according toclaim 1, wherein said piece of return mail creation screen generated bysaid generation means further sets a body of said piece of e-mail beingviewed to a body of said piece of return mail as a quote.
 4. The e-mailprocessing system according to claim 1, wherein said piece of e-mailprocessing system is a WWW mail system, further comprising a sendingmeans for sending a piece of return mail creation screen generated bysaid generation means to be displayed by a WWW browser.
 5. The e-mailprocessing system according to claim 4, wherein said WWW browser is aWWW browser of a mobile terminal.
 6. The e-mail processing systemaccording to claim 1, wherein predetermined addresses set asdestinations of said piece of return mail when said predetermined limitis determined to be exceeded in said generation means is either anaddress in From field or an address in Reply-to field of said piece ofe-mail being viewed.
 7. The e-mail processing system according to claim1, wherein addresses set as destinations of said return mail when saidpredetermined limit is determined not to be exceeded in said generationmeans is set not to include redundant addresses.
 8. An e-mail processingmethod for processing a piece of e-mail in an e-mail system with apredetermined limit on the number of destination addresses of a piece ofe-mail to be sent, comprising the steps of: determining whether thenumber of destination addresses of a piece of e-mail being viewed to bereturned to everyone exceeds said predetermined limit when directed tobe returned to everyone for said piece of e-mail being viewed; andgenerating a piece of return mail creation screen with predeterminedaddresses in said piece of e-mail being viewed being set as destinationsof the piece of return mail when said predetermined limit is determinedto be exceeded, and for generating a piece of return mail creationscreen with everyone's address of said piece of e-mail being viewedbeing set as a destination of the piece of return mail when saidpredetermined limit is determined not to be exceeded.
 9. The e-mailprocessing method according to claim 8, wherein said piece of returnmail creation screen generated in said generating step further comprisesa message indicating that everyone's address is not set as a destinationof a piece of return mail, when said predetermined limit is determinedto be exceeded.
 10. The e-mail processing method according to claim 8,wherein said return mail creation screen generated in said generatingstep further sets a body of said piece of e-mail being viewed to a bodyof said piece of return mail as a quote.
 11. The e-mail processingmethod according to claim 8, wherein said piece of e-mail processingmethod is a processing method for a WWW mail, further comprising asending step for sending a piece of return mail creation screengenerated in said generating step to be displayed by a WWW browser. 12.The e-mail processing method according to claim 11, wherein said WWWbrowser is a WWW browser of a mobile terminal.
 13. The e-mail processingmethod according to claim 8, wherein predetermined addresses set asdestinations of said piece of return mail when said predetermined limitis determined to be exceeded in said generating step is either anaddress in From field or an address of Reply-to field of said piece ofe-mail being viewed.
 14. The e-mail processing method according to claim8, wherein addresses set as destinations of said piece of return mailwhen said predetermined limit is determined not to be exceeded in saidgenerating step is set not to include redundant addresses.
 15. Acomputer executable program for processing a piece of e-mail in ane-mail system with a predetermined limit on the number of destinationaddresses of a piece of e-mail to be sent, wherein said programcomprises a program code to cause a computer to execute the steps of:determining whether the number of destination addresses of a piece ofe-mail being viewed to be returned to everyone exceeds saidpredetermined limit when directed to be returned to everyone for thepiece of e-mail being viewed; and generating step of generating a pieceof return mail creation screen with predetermined addresses in saidpiece of e-mail being viewed being set as destinations of the piece ofreturn mail when said predetermined limit is determined to be exceededand for generating a piece of return mail creation screen with aneveryone's address for said piece of e-mail being viewed being set as adestination of the piece of return mail when the predetermined limit isdetermined not to be exceeded.
 16. The computer program according toclaim 15, wherein said piece of return mail creation screen generated insaid generating step further comprises a message indicating thateveryone's address is not set as a destination of a piece of returnmail, when said predetermined limit is determined to be exceeded. 17.The computer program according to claim 15, wherein said piece of returnmail creation screen generated in said generating step further sets abody of said piece of e-mail being viewed to a body of said piece ofreturn mail as a quote.
 18. The computer program according to claim 15,wherein said computer program is a program for processing a WWW mail,further comprising a program code to cause a computer to execute asending step for sending a piece of return mail creation screengenerated in said generating step to be displayed by a WWW browser. 19.The computer program according to claim 18, wherein said WWW browser isa WWW browser of a mobile terminal.
 20. The computer program accordingto claim 15, wherein predetermined addresses set as destinations of saidpiece of return mail when said predetermined limit is determined to beexceeded in said generating step is either an address in From field oran address of Reply-to field of said piece of e-mail being viewed. 21.The computer program according to claim 15, wherein addresses set asdestinations of said piece of return mail when said predetermined limitis determined not to be exceeded in said generating step is set not toinclude redundant addresses.